Data Scientist
Data Scientist

Biography

Brett Simpson is a data scientist who came to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in 2018. Prior to joining PNNL, he worked at several Hanford Site prime contractors as a chemical engineer and data analyst on Hanford tank waste characterization and effluent treatment at the Fukushima site. Simpson has over 25 years of engineering, data analysis, and quantitative modeling experience.

His projects supporting the Applied Data Analytics and Visualization group include Monte Carlo risk modeling and analysis for the U.S. High Performance Research Reactor Conversion program for the National Nuclear Security Administration; design, testing, and deployment of scalable, Tableau-based data analytics for Washington River Protection Solutions’ Industrial Hygiene team supporting the Hanford Tank Farm Vapors Program; and he leads technical development of Temporary Emergency Exposure Limits for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Emergency Policy. He also leads the program management of the PHOENIX portfolio of self-serve data access and visualization tools for Department of Energy’s, Richland Operations Office and Office of River Protection.

Disciplines and Skills

  • Chemical process engineering 

  • Data science 

  • Data visualization 

  • Project management skills 

  • Project portfolio management 

  • Radioactive waste management 

  • Risk informed decision analysis 

  • Radioactive waste characterization 

Education

  • MS, predictive analytics, Northwestern University  

  • BS, chemical engineering, University of North Dakota 

Patents

Preston, J. D., D. A. Preston, T. M. Vance, B. C. Simpson, P. A. Madakson, and W. R. Rieger. 2022. Systems and Methods for Using Smart Contracts to Control the Trade, Supply, Manufacture, and Distribution of Commodities. US Patent 11037211.

Preston, J. D., W. R. Rieger, D. A. Preston, and B. C. Simpson. 2021. System and method for manufacturing and trading securities and commodities. US Patent 11017469.

Publications

2023 

Bernat, A. B. C. Simpson, M. B. Triplett, and R. N. Anderson. 2023. “Evaluating Personal Ammonia Monitor Performance to Better Meet Industrial Hygiene Standards at a Decommissioned Nuclear Site.” Paper number 23277. Waste Management Symposia, Pheonix, AZ, 2023.  

2021 

Yu X., M.D. Sturtevant, and B.C. Simpson. 2021. "The CMM Wizard: An Improved Tool for Consequence Assessment." Sturtevant at Emergency Management Issues (EMI) Special Interest Group (SIG) Annual Meeting, Virtual, United States, August 05, 2021. PNNL-SA-164099. 

2020 

Unwin S.D., D. Calderin Morales, B.C. Simpson, C.J. Spitz, A. Veeramany, J.A. Gastelum, and C.T. Maloney. 2020. "An Improved Risk Priority Measure for the Management of Project Risk." In ASME 2020 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition IMECE2020. PNNL-SA-152881. 

Simpson B.C., M.B. Triplett, E.L. McCann, N.J. Betzsold, R.J. Toth, S.R. Clingenpeel, and M.L. Zabel. 2020. "Conducting Industrial Hygiene Exposure Assessments at Scale Using Non-Parametric Upper Tolerance Limits at the Hanford Site." Paper number 20439. Waste Management Symposia, Phoenix, AZ, March 03, 2020.  

2019 

Royer, P., M. Eberlein, B. C. Simpson, M. B. Triplett and M. Pelton. 2019. “Exploration and Analysis of Legacy Data at the Hanford Site using PHOENIX.” Paper number 19044. Waste Management Symposia Phoenix, AZ, 2019.  

2016 

Ion Exchange. 2016. “Inorganic Ion Exchange Media Used at Fukushima- Daiichi.” London, England, 2016.  

2015 

Simpson, B. C, J. L. Mertz, W. L. Bratton and C. J. Nelson. 2015. “Development of Ion Specific Media and Modular Processing Systems to Treat Sr-Contaminated Water at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.” Paper Number 5029. Global2015 Conference, Paris, France, September 2015.  

2014 

Renevitz, M. B. C. Simpson and J. C. Peshong. 2014. “DOE Dashboards Eliminate Redundancy, Improve Accuracy, and Speed Decision-Making.” Paper number 14363. Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 2014.  

Simpson, B. C., J. C. Peshong and M. Renevitz. 2014. “Data Integration with Geospatial Visualization Tools at the Hanford Site.” Paper Number 14369. Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 2014.  

Renevitz, M. B. C. Simpson, J. C. Peshong and B. Charboneau. 2014. “DOE Dashboards Eliminate Redundancy, Improve Accuracy, and Speed Decision-Making.” Paper number 14363. Waste Management Conference, Phoenix, AZ, 2014. 

2007 

Simpson B.C., R.A. Corbin, M.J. Anderson, and C.T. Kincaid. 2007. Hanford Soil Inventory Model (SIM) Rev. 2 User's Guide. PNNL-16925. Richland, WA: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Hanford Soil Inventory Model (SIM) Rev. 2 User's Guide 

1997 

Remund, K. A. and B. C. Simpson. 1997. “Clustering of Radioactive Tank Waste Data and Comparisons with Historical Models.” Sixth International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management and Environmental Remediation, Singapore, 1997.  

1996 

Simpson, B. C., S. J Eberlein, T. M. Brown, C. Brevick and S. F. Agnew. 1996. “Characterization of Hanford Tank Waste and the Role of Historic Modeling,” Paper Number 37-2. Waste Management Symposia, Tucson AZ, 1996. 

1994 

Simpson, B. C. and D. S. DeLorenzo. 1994. “Hanford Site Waste Tank Characterization,” WHC-SA-2584-FP. Characterization and Treatment of High-Level Waste Symposium, Washington DC, 1994. 

1993 

Simpson, B. C., H. Babad and R. J. Cash. 1993. “Recent results from Characterization of Ferrocyanide Wastes at the Hanford Site.” Paper Number 1111. Waste Management Conference, Tucson AZ, 1993.