William Neil Howell, Principal Reports

I have seldom been in a position to generate reports of a non-confidential nature suitable for publication. The list that follows is therefore comprised mostly of internal corporate reports that were not released. Often these reports were prepared with tight deadlines and with a specific "customer" in mind, so the style tends to be succinct and to the point. Still, I have always been proud of the technical depth and quality of most of my reports, which compare favourably with many of the publications of technical and marketing research personnel that I have worked with, reviewed, or administered.

Almost all of the reports as listed below were essentially my own investigations, analysis and reporting. In a few cases initial direction and objectives came from senior scientists (M.A.Sc. thesis and earlier CANMET work in particular). Extensive computer modelling is used in most of the work, using several different computer languages and advanced usage/macro programming of applications such as spreadsheets and text retrieval software.

The big exception to my primary authorship is the Neural Networks journal special issue of selected papers from the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks 2005 in Montreal: http://faculty.uwb.edu/ijcnn05/ For that publication I was one of four guest editors.

Most of my work at ICI Sulfur Products research group was never produced in a major report format - for example: cleanup of smelter gas derived SO2 & H2SO4; pasturize bio-enzymes (B.T.), process evaluation/costing of slow-release polymer coatings for fertilizers, and formulation/ application of canola seed coatings. Some of this work was in the form of process design and cost estimation for senior management decisions on advanced R&D projects, while other work was in the form of highly technical engineering support to other researchers.

Business plans and annual reports arising from my business development activities at NRCan are not referenced, but I prepared very detailed and complete updates and forecasts on a regular basis, using sophisticated software tie-ins to corporate information systems.



28Jan07, original: ?2000?