Dr. Najmedin (Najm) Meshkati is a (tenured, full) Professor of Civil/Environmental Engineering, Industrial & Systems Engineering; and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC); and an Associate (ex-Research Fellow) with the Project on Managing the Atom at Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.
Dr. Meshkati was a Jefferson Science Fellow and a Senior Science and Engineering Advisor, Office of Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State, U.S. State Department, Washington, DC (2009-2010). He is a Commissioner of The Joint Commission and is on the Governance Board of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. He is a member of the NASEM (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine) Gulf Offshore Energy Safety (GOES) Board and served for two consecutive terms on the NASEM Board on Human-Systems Integration (BOHSI, 2016-2022).
In January 2023, Dr. Meshkati was appointed to the FAA Expert Panel to conduct a congressionally-mandated review of Boeing's safety management processes and Boeing's safety culture as a part of the Aircraft Certification, Safety & Accountability Act (ACSAA), Section 103 Organization Designation Authorization (ODA). He was invited and testified at a Hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation about the Panel's findings on April 17, 2024.
For the past 39 years, he has been teaching and conducting research on risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex technological systems, including nuclear power, aviation, petrochemical and transportation industries. He has been selected by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and National Research Council (NRC) for his interdisciplinary expertise concerning human performance and safety culture and served as member and technical advisor on two national panels in the United States investigating two major recent accidents: The NAS/NRC Committee "Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants" (2012-2014); and the NAE/NRC "Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future" (2010-2011).
Dr. Meshkati has inspected many petrochemical and nuclear power plants around the world, including Chernobyl (1997), Fukushima Daiichi and Daini (2012). He has worked with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, as an expert on human factors and safety culture, on the investigation of the B.P. Refinery explosion in Texas City (2005) and served as a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Human Performance, Organizational Systems and Maritime Safety.
Dr. Meshkati was recognized by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) in 2022, as an inaugural "Titan of HFES"; he an elected Fellow of the HFES; the 2015 recipient of the HFES highest award, the Arnold M. Small President's Distinguished Service Award, for his "career-long contributions that have brought honor to the profession and the Society"; and the 2007 recipient of the HFES Oliver Keith Hansen Outreach Award for his "scholarly efforts on human factors of complex, large-scale technological systems.
Dr. Meshkati simultaneously received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and a B.A. in Political Science in 1976, from Sharif (Arya-Meher) University of Technology and Shahid Beheshti University (National University of Iran), respectively; a M.S. in Engineering Management in 1978; and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering in 1983 from USC. He is a Certified Professional Ergonomist.
On June 20, 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission issued Energy Division Resolution E-5329 and selected Dr. Meshkati along with two other individuals as candidates for consideration by the Chair of the California Energy Commission (CEC) for appointment to the DCISC for a term commencing July 1, 2024 and ending on June 30, 2027. On July 3, 2024, CEC Chair David Hochschild announced the appointment of Dr. Meshkati to a three-year term on the DCISC.