William F. Dempster

Director of Systems Engineering and chief engineer for the Biosphere 2 project of Space Biospheres Ventures.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

1996 – Director of Engineering Systems, Synergia Ranch LLC, New Mexico

1993 to 1996 President, Institute of Ecotechnics, a London-based international ecological development institute. (Held position for 1983-86 term).

1978 – Director of Systems Engineering for Biospheric Design, Inc.(Synergetic Architecture and biotechnic Design Corporation), New Mexico.

1995 – Contract supervisor for Silver Hills Development project of EcoFrontiers, Engineering Design Contractor, Cyberspheres, Inc.

1996 – Mars Base and Modular Biospheres project, Systems Engineering with Biospheres, LLC.

1985 to 1994 Director of Systems Engineering and chief engineer for the Biosphere 2 project of Space Biospheres Ventures, Oracle, Arizona, a 3-acre, 7 million cubic foot airtight closed ecological system completed in 1991 and initially operated continuously for two years with a crew of eight persons recycling air, food, water and wastes.

1987 to 1993 Director, Ocean Expeditions, Inc. Conducting sailing expeditions around the world using R/V Heraclitus.

1982 to 1984 Director of Quality Control and Owner’s Representative for Engineering Design of the Caravan of Dreams Performing Arts Center, Fort Worth, Texas.

1980 to 1982 Expedition Chief, Institute of Ecotechnics, Amazon River Expedition. Studies of rainforest biome ecology and native cultures. Expedition crew of fifteen aboard sailing vessel R/V Heraclitus.

1977 to 1979 President and Software Systems Designer, Feedback Systems, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1973 to 1975 Co-Designer of the R/V Heraclitus, an ocean-going auxiliary powered sailing research vessel, a project of the Institute of Ecotechnics.

1971 to 1972 Co-Designer, Engineering and Construction of the well-known Theatre Dome at Synergia Ranch, a landmark of the Cerrillos Hills area. (Dome up-graded 1995-96).

1969 to 1979 Director of Energy and Infrastructure Systems, Synergia Ranch, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Development of solar and wind energy systems and infrastructure for an ecological demonstration project.

1966 to 1969 Head of Computer Users Consulting Office, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California. Development of specialized debugging programs.

1964 to 1966 Systems and Applications Programmer, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California. Programming of applications including relativistic particle physics simulation.

PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  1. Society of Automotive Engineers 18th Intersociety Conference on Environmental Systems, San Francisco, 1988. Dempster, William F., “Design of a Closed Manned Terrestrial Ecosystem.” Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No. 881096
  2. American Society of Civil Engineers Space 88 Conference, Albuquerque, 1988. Published as Dempster, William F., “Biosphere II: Engineering of Manned Closed Ecological Systems.”, Journal of Aerospace Engineering, vol., no., Jan. 1991
  3. Society of Automotive Engineers 19th Intersociety Conference on Environmental Systems, San Diego, 1989. Dempster, William F. “Biosphere II: Technical Overview of a Manned Closed Ecological System.” Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No. 891599.
  4. Society of Automotive Engineers 20th Intersociety Conference on Environmental Systems, Williamsburg, VA., 1990. Dempster, William F. “Biosphere 2 Project Status: Design of a Closed Manned Terrestrial Ecological System. “Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No.901233.
  5. Nelson, M., Allen, J.P., Dempster, W. “Biosphere 2: Prototype Project for a Permanent and Evolving Life System for a Mars Base.” Paper no. MF 1.4.6, COSPAR XXVIII Plenary Meeting, The Hague, Netherlands, 1990.
  6. Society of Automotive Engineers 21st International Conference on Environmental Systems, San Francisco, 1991. Dempster, William F. “Biosphere 2: Design Approaches to Redundancy and Back-Up.” Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No. 911328.7. Society of Automotive Engineers 22nd International Conference on Environmental Systems, Seattle, WA., 1992. Dempster, William F. “Biosphere 2: Overview of System Performance During the First Nine Months.” Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No. 921129.
  7. Third Annual Advanced Regenerative Life Support Systems Research Conference, Texas A&M University, Space Research Center, College Station, Texas, April 1990. “Biosphere II: A Large Closed Regenerative Life System”, by William F. Dempster and Linda S. Leigh.
  8. Symposium on Space Life Sciences in Austria, Vienna, Austria, Dec. 2-3, 1992. Presentation by William F. Dempster: “Life Support Systems on a Grand Scale – Biosphere 2 and the Future”
  9. Society of Automotive Engineers 23rd International Conference on Environmental Systems, Colorado Springs, CO, July 1993. Dempster, William F. “Biosphere 2: System Dynamics and Observations During the Initial Two-Year Closure Trial.” Society of Automotive Engineers Technical Paper No. 932290.
  10. Dempster, W.F. “Methods for Measurement and Control of Leakage in CELSS and Their Application and Performance in the Biosphere 2 Facility”, Advances in Space Research, Vol. 14, no. 11, pp. 331-335, 1994.
  11. Nelson, M., Dempster, W., Alvarez-Romo, N., MacCallum, T., “Atmospheric Dynamics and Bioregenerative Technologies in a Soil-Based Ecological Life Support System: Initial Results from Biosphere 2″, Advances in Space Research, vol. 4, no. 11, pp., 1994.
  12. Nelson, M., Allen, J.P., and Dempster, W. “Biosphere 2, Prototype for a Permanent and Evolving Life System for a Mars Base”, R.D. MacElroy, M.M. Averner, T.W. Tibbitts, B.B. Bugbee, G. Horneck, and E.H. Dunlop, eds. Natural and Artificial Ecosystem, Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 211-218 in Life Sciences and Space Research XXIV (4), Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1991.
  13. Nelson, M., Burgess, T., Alling, A., Alvarez-Romo, N., Dempster, W., Walford, R., and Allen, J. “Using a Closed Ecological System to Study Earth’s Biosphere: Initial Results from Biosphere 2,” Bioscience, Vol. 43, No. 4, April 1993, pp. 225-236.
  14. Severinghaus, Jeffrey P., Broecker, Wallace S., Dempster, William F., MacCallum, Taber, and Wahlen, Martin, “Oxygen Loss in Biosphere 2,” Transactions of the American Geophysical Union, Vol. 75, No. 03, January 18, 1994, pp. 33,35-37.
  15. American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Space Programs and Technologies Conference and Exhibit, Sept. 21-23, 1993, Huntsville, AL. William F. Dempster and Mark Van Thillo, “Maintenance and Operational Support Characteristics of Biosphere 2″, Paper AIAA 93-4181.
  16. Keynote speaker, ENERGY 2001 Award Ceremony, Oklahoma City, March 1991.
  17. Life Support and Biospherics Conf., Huntsville, AL, Feb. 1992 “Water Systems of Biosphere 2.
  18. Speaker at Life Support and Biospherics Conf., Huntsville, AL Feb. 1994

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