The insulation experts that comprise the Insulation Institute provide many decades of knowledge that helps inform the Institute’s many educational activities. While insulation experts, many have expertise that extends into other areas of building science. Insulation expertise is good, but buildings are systems, and these experts understand the interplay of the many components of homes and buildings.
JR Babineau
Johns Manville | Building Scientist
As a building scientist for Johns Manville, JR is responsible for research and technology development of building products and applications, with emphasis in building science, indoor environmental quality and energy efficiency.
He has been with Johns Manville for 16 years. He is actively involved in standards development through ASHRAE, represents Johns Manville on industry and government research teams and serves on the Board of Directors for Home Energy magazine.
He holds a Master’s degree in engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Colorado and is also a licensed engineer.
Clarke Berdan II
Owens Corning | R&D Leader
Clarke Berdan II, Ph.D., received his doctorate degree from the California Institute of Technology majoring in Chemical Engineering and BS degree from the University of California at Berkeley in the same discipline.
He has been with Owens Corning at the Science and Technology Center since 1981 and is currently the Senior Technical Services Leader for the insulation products businesses. His group operates under the umbrella of the Corporate Sustainability organization and thus provides the businesses his team supports with a view to products and applications through the lens of sustainability. His group is very active in industry product and testing standards and code language development.
His experiences cross a wide range of product and process development as well as process and building modeling. Much of his work has focused on the understanding of the physical operations of building envelopes from the theoretical through to the practical aspects of the transport phenomena that exist out in the built environment.
Product development is very important, but to enhance the success rate, it must come from a systems approach that understands what problems are needed to be solved and how products work as integral parts of systems over their useful service life.
Clarke currently serves on the board of directors for the Air Barrier Association of America.
Lucas Hamilton
CertainTeed Corp. | Manager, Building Science Applications
Lucas Hamilton is Manager, Building Science Applications for CertainTeed.
He’s spent more than 20 years in the building science end of the construction industry, working for builders, designers and product manufacturers. He brings an in-depth knowledge of the physics of buildings to the practice of building.
His experiences include forensic building envelope diagnostics and testing, development of non-intrusive construction analysis equipment and techniques, research and development of construction materials, and he is a practitioner of a variety of building performance simulation software.
Lucas is a frequent presenter of programs that span the breadth of Building Science topics. In his years with CertainTeed, Hamilton has spoken to more than 1,000 different groups ranging from individual local architectural firms to national architectural firms to AIA, AIBD, SARA and CSI chapter events to statewide AIA and CSI chapter events to the national AIA and CSI conventions in both the US and Canada.
He has presented education programs to specialty subcontractors as well as to general contractors throughout the US. Twice a year he provides a weeklong series of continuing education programs for building code official and contractor licensing programs in the Mid-West.
Scott Miller
Knauf Insulation | Director of Sustainability
Scott Miller is the Director of Sustainability and Product Affairs at Knauf Insulation.
He is responsible for Knauf’s external relations with agencies, key standard-setting organizations and interest groups. His areas of interest include promoting sustainable development, the value of energy efficiency and the fair and balanced performance of all genres of insulation products.
Scott is past chairman of the Sustainability and Environment Committee of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association, as well as serving on the Regulatory Affairs Committee. He is also active with BIFMA (Office Furniture Association), ASHRAE (past Chairman of Chapter 23–Mechanical Insulation–Fundamentals Handbook), the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute, the U.S. Green Building Council, ASTM and others.
A mechanical engineer with more than 30 years of product assessment and testing experience, Scott is particularly interested in elevated temperature performance and sustainability in insulation. His recent work with Knauf includes an emphasis on environmental issues, as the industry works to promote insulation’s role in reducing energy consumption and preserving our natural resources, while maintaining comfortable and healthy indoor environments.