James R. Chiles Announced as General Meeting Speaker
The National Board announces James R. Chiles, noted author and commentator, will address the General Session at the 83rd General Meeting in Bellevue, Washington. His presentation is entitled, Secrets of the Code.
Mr. Chiles has been writing about technology and history since 1979. In addition to authoring the books Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology and The God Machine: From Boomerangs to Black Hawks, the Story of the Helicopter, he has published features and columns in Smithsonian, Air & Space, the Boston Globe, Popular Science, Harvard, Aviation Week, Mechanical Engineering, and Invention & Technology.
The Missouri native’s approach to research distinguishes him from many other writers in his field. His work has taken him into the wreckage of the World Trade Center; into a nitroglycerine factory; on oilrigs; on a helicopter during maintenance of a live, high-voltage power line in Pennsylvania; to learn how to escape from a flooding vehicle; into remote stretches of Alaska’s North Slope; and on a firefighter training mission to extinguish a burning propane tank.
Mr. Chiles was featured commentator for a History Channel television series based on his book, Inviting Disaster. He has also appeared in History Channel programs such as Titanic at 100, Katrina: American Catastrophe, Engineering Disasters, Life after People, Wild West Tech, and Megadisasters. He also appeared on National Geographic’s Seconds from Disaster series.
Mr. Chiles was featured on the cover of the winter 2011 National Board BULLETIN and is a regular contributor to the publication. He addressed the General Session at the 80th General Meeting in Las Vegas in 2011. Mr. Chiles maintains a blog at www.disaster-wise.blogspot.com.