Instructors:
John Cyganiewicz, P.E. has over 36 years of experience in the analysis, design and construction of large embankment dams. After 32 years with the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), he retired in 2008 to start his company, Cyganiewicz Geotechnical, LLC. Currently he is a private consultant providing independent review and risk analysis services. During his tenure with USBR, his experience ranged from designing some of the largest earth-rockfill dams in the US and overseas to rehabilitating a variety of embankment dams in the Western United States – most recently the new Ridges Basin Dam in southwestern Colorado. He has special expertise in design; dam safety upgrades for seismic and flood capacity issues; risk analysis; hydropower projects; dam rehabilitation; slurry wall cutoffs; grouting; landslides; construction of dams; instrumentation and performance of dams. He was a founding member of USBR’s Risk Cadre that pioneered the development of risk analysis methodologies (including facilitation of team risk analyses) with specialty in the probability of failure from seepage and piping failure modes. He was a contributing author to the FEMA document, Best Practices for Conduits through Embankment Dams. He has also served on many design review and advisory boards for major dams.
Debora J. Miller, P.E., Ph.D. is an independent consultant specializing in geotechnical engineering associated with design and construction of earthen embankments. She has over 24 years’ experience in private consulting and 4 years in university teaching and research. Dr. Miller served two terms on the Board of Directors of United States Society on Dams (USSD), and was the Facilitator for Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) workshops for several flood control projects in Arizona. She has also made presentations at the Technical Workshop on National Dam Safety, and for the Lecture Series on Case Histories of Dams at Colorado State University. She was a guest speaker for graduate course on topics of a case history and design of granular filters.
Paul G. Schweiger, PE., CFM is a Vice President of Gannett Fleming with 28 years of consulting engineering experience during which time he has worked on hundreds of dam projects providing the full range of dam engineering services. Mr. Schweiger is a certified Failure Modes Analysis facilitator and a regular ASDSO Dam Owner Workshop instructor. He has published over 40 technical papers and technical manuals, given many presentations on a wide range of dam engineering topics, and is a frequent speaker at national dam safety conferences and specialty technical seminars. He also developed and co-taught an NRCS SITES course for evaluating the stability and integrity of auxiliary spillways. He has served on several dam safety committees and work groups including: the National Dam Safety Review Board, the NRCS Study Work Group to evaluate design tools for roller-compacted concrete stepped spillways and embankment armoring, and the FEMA work group for establishing guidelines for the hydraulic safety of dams. He is currently serving as an expert hydrology and hydraulics engineer on an Independent External Peer Review panel for several United States Army Corps of Engineers DSAC I dam projects.