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JAMES W. POARCH BS ChE 1960, UMR |
Jim began his career in the PVC industry at BFGoodrich Chemical in Avon Lake, Ohio in 1960. He broadened his experience by moving to the pharmaceutical industry at Hoffman-Taff in 1963, where he worked on projects to produce specialty fine chemicals. During this period, Jim earned an MBA at Drury College in Springfield, Missouri. Between 1970 and 1984, he held positions as Technical Manager and Process Engineering Manager working in PVC production technology at Borden Chemicals and Tenneco Chemicals. Jim then returned to school at the University of Virginia, where he completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry in 1990. In 1993, Dr. Poarch served as the U.S. Technical Representative on the Chemical Weapons Production Facility's Working Group at the organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. He was nominated in 1994 to be Chemical Operations Officer for the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, and he served on five CW inspections in Iraq, one of which he was Chief Inspector. He also served as Chemical Process Specialist inspecting the Russian V-Agent production facility in Novocheboksarsk. In 1995, Jim was sent to Tokyo to aid in the investigation of the sarin nerve agent release in the subway system, where he identified a key chemical signature that tied the release to the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult. Jim joined ITT Systems and Sciences Corporation in April of 1998, where he oversees various projects that deal with CW programs for weapons and arms control. He has assisted the Department of State in evaluating on-site Russian collaborative chemical research under the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program. Dr. Poarch is also a Consultant with Poarch Chemical Consultants in Alexandria, Virginia. He has published articles in the Society of Plastics Engineers Journal and the Journal of Organic Chemistry, is a member of the American Chemical Society, Alpha Chi Sigma, Tau Beta Pi, and a Registered Professional Engineer in Missouri. Jim was inducted into the Academy in 2001.