Thomas J. O’Brien has been a Research Scientist at the NETL since 1979. He obtained a B.S.
in chemistry from the College of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) in 1962, a Ph.D. in Physical/Theoretical
Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin (Madison) in 1968, has held postdoctoral positions at The
Queen’s University (Belfast, Northern Ireland) and The Johns Hopkins University, and has been a National Research Council Associate (U. S. Army Ballistics Research Laboratory). He was an Assistant
Professor in the Chemistry Department at Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX) from 1969-79.Most of
Dr. O’Brien’s research efforts at NETL have been in developing mechanistic mathematical models for
coal conversion processes.