Dr. Porter has experience investigating and solving problems in a broad range of industries and applications including power generation turbomachinery (gas, steam, and hydro-turbines), industrial facilities, pressurized equipment (pipelines, heat exchangers, storage tanks, and boilers), and consumer products. In these investigations, Dr. Porter applies fundamental engineering principles and leverages his expertise in physical and mechanical metallurgy, failure analysis, corrosion, fracture mechanics, manufacturing and fabrication, and microstructure-property relationships. Additionally, Dr. Porter assists in complex multi-disciplinary engineering investigations by applying his deep understanding of the relationships between the metallurgical properties of components, manufacturing or processing of those components, applied stresses to those components, and local service environments in which those components operate.

Dr. Porter also has experience helping clients in the consumer product space navigate risk assessments and recall decisions. Additionally, Dr. Porter has carried out and advised on several large-scale organizational assessments of product safety and regulatory compliance programs for clients with a range of products and business models.

Before joining Secretariat, Dr. Porter was a Managing Engineer at a large engineering and consulting firm where he helped clients solve challenging multi-disciplinary engineering problems and provided evidence as an expert witness. Prior to this consulting role, Dr. Porter conducted his doctoral research at the Colorado School of Mines related to high-temperature mechanical behavior of an advanced austenitic stainless steel for use in pressure vessels in next generation nuclear reactors. While at Colorado School of Mines, Dr. Porter served as a teaching assistant for the metal casting foundry and was instrumental in the development of a blade smithing elective course in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department. Prior to his graduate research, Dr. Porter gained valuable experience in new product development during his employment with manufacturing companies, Precision Castparts Corp., and ESCO Corp., where he helped develop patented designs and optimize manufacturing processes including sand and investment casting, machining, heat treatment, and inspection.