Ralph Gonzales—2018 Technical Engineer of the Year
Ralph Gonzales is a portfolio manager for the National Technology and Development Program (NTDP) in San Dimas, CA. NTDP is a detached unit of the Washington Office Engineering Program Technology and Geospatial Services. Ralph facilitates the Fire and Aviation Management Program (FAM) portfolio; the largest portfolio within NTDP. The FAM portfolio covers projects ranging from airtankers to off-highway vehicles (OHVs), and exhaust systems to firefighter health.
Ralph is recognized for his work on the fuel geyser project. The project’s objective is to minimize injuries caused by the inadvertent release of fuel. Over the past 2 years, Federal agencies working in fire and non-fire activities reported 54 fuel geyser incidents. Since 2015, fuel geysering incidents have resulted in five injuries. Understanding fuel geysering is a technically complex project and there is very little available research. NTDP organized the project into three major components: engineering, operations, and awareness. The engineering component includes all laboratory testing and field evaluations. The operations component focuses on user practices, best practices, and operational procedures. Actionable information NTDP learns from the engineering and operations components drives the awareness component. NTDP distributes information using a national awareness campaign. For the awareness campaign, NTDP considers the delivery method and the life span of the message.
Collaboration with industry, other government laboratories, regulatory agencies, and academia is essential for success. Partners provide information or conduct laboratory analysis to support the project. Continuous feedback from the user group is also critical to this project. A core user group provided the initial feedback before NTDP expanded the larger user community.
The greatest challenge this project presents is balancing the need for science-based tests with the urgency of developing a solution before anyone else is injured. A team of dedicated engineers, equipment specialists, and firefighters united to prevent another injury keeps moving the project forward, despite technical, political, and logistical challenges.
Ralph joined the Forest Service in 1995. He and his wife Linda have three children: Makena, Joshua, and Leah. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a master’s of science degree in system management from the University of Southern California. He is a surfer and enjoys being in the ocean.
