BIO
Ed Roberts has been actively involved in lightning and
transient protection for over thirty years.
He formerly worked for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as an
electronics engineer specializing in lightning and transient protection and later
as the national program manager for lightning protection, grounding, bonding and
shielding (LPGBS) for all FAA facilities. As
program manager, Mr. Roberts was responsible for the development and editing of
FAA-STD-019. Mr. Roberts
chaired the FAA Grounding and Surge Protection Working Group who received the
2000 National Lightning Safety Institute Lightning Safety Award for their work
on FAA-STD-019 http://www.lightningsafety.com/nlsi_history/awards2000.html
Since
1988 Mr. Roberts has presented seminars and short courses on lightning and
transient protection as well as areas of grounding, bonding, and
shielding. He has designed and built surge protection circuits for complex
electronic circuits and is intimately familiar with the considerations of
circuit impact in normal operation. He has conducted numerous surveys and
performed rigorous failure analysis on both systems and components which have
been damaged by lightning related surges and transients. Mr. Roberts' work
has covered areas in many climatic zones from Alaska to the Turks and Caicos
Islands. He has worked on grounding and lightning protection surveys and
problem solving from the desert Southwest to the El Yunque rain forest of Puerto
Rico
Mr. Roberts has both presented papers and chaired sessions
at international lightning conferences as well as national electrical workshops for FAA,
Transport Canada, and Canadian Airports Electrical Association.
After his retirement
from FAA in
December 2004 Mr. Roberts established E. F. Roberts & Assoc., providing education for LPGBS
including problem avoidance and threat mitigation.
He can be contacted at
ed.roberts@efrobertsassoc.com
