Engineering Staff

Our engineering staff has a wide range of skills and specializations, with over 100 years of combined experience in process safety.

Jeff D. Marx, P.E., P.Eng.

• Risk and Consequence Analysis
• LNG Code Compliance
• Fire Protection
• CANARY Software Support and Development

Jeff received a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma and a Masters in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  In his 30+ years at Quest, he has become an expert in consequence analysis, risk analysis, facility siting, LNG, and related topics in fire protection. His experience includes building siting studies, Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA), and Process Hazard Analysis for the refining, LNG, LPG, chemical, and pipeline industries. Jeff is also responsible for several portions of the CANARY by Quest Consequence Modeling package, and CANARY+, the risk mapping software used in QRA studies.

Jeff is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Oklahoma, California, and British Columbia. 

Ben Ishii, P.E.

• Risk and Consequence Analysis
• CANARY Software Support and Development
• CFD
• Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)

Ben received a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Kansas State University.

Ben is experienced in consequence and risk analysis including building siting studies, Quantitative Risk Analysis, and consequence analysis for the refining, LNG, LPG, and chemical industries. Ben has incorporated computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling into consequence studies as well as presented multiple papers based on CFD modeling.

Ben facilitated multiple Process Hazard Analysis (PHA) studies including HAZID and HAZOP.

Ben is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Oklahoma.

Associate Staff

Tom Gramza, P.E.

• Fire Protection
• Fire Suppression
• Fire Water Systems

Tom received his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Tom has 25 years of design, engineering and management experience in fire suppression, fire detection/alarm systems, and code consulting. He has provided services for a wide range of project types including energy, industrial, aviation, nuclear, commercial office, residential, and visitor attraction facilities. Tom also has extensive experience in process safety and fire protection engineering for the oil & gas industry. His experience includes FERC/FEED designs for several new LNG facilities located in Texas and across the Gulf Coast region and was responsible for the design and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) permitting submission of the fire protection/process safety systems for those facilities.

Tom is a licensed Fire Protection Engineer, registered in Massachusetts, Texas, New York, Delaware, Connecticut, Mississippi, and Utah.

John B. Cornwell

• Risk and Consequence Analysis
• CANARY Software Support and Development
• Vapor Dispersion Research

John received his Bachelors in Chemical Engineering and Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. John has over 40 years of experience in the fields of consequence and risk analysis. During his 30 years with Quest Consultants Inc, John was recognized as a leader in process safety risk analysis, consequence analysis, and facility siting.  He directed the development and use of consequence and risk analysis software for modeling the impacts associated with toxic and flammable fluid releases, fires, and vapor cloud explosions.  These software tools have been used in over 500 consequence analysis studies and 100 Quantitative Risk Analysis (QRA) studies worldwide. Prior to joining Quest, John worked for the University of Texas Center for Energy Studies, Energy Analysts, Inc. and Los Alamos National Laboratory.