Member Biographies
John R. Plumer is a small business owner and Founder/Managing Director of JRPlumer Associates, LLC of Belmont, NH. He has extensive experience as a career Army Scientist and Pollution Prevention Program Manager working with DoD, academia and industry.
He is a veteran and small business owner who has successfully developed, managed, and transitioned engineering and science-based programs that have addressed critical materiel and operational issues as well as commercial opportunities. He holds BA and MS degrees from the University of New Hampshire in geology and zoology, as well a graduate program and adjunct professorship in Plastics Engineering at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
He has authored/co-authored numerous reports, presentations, technical papers and received several provisional patents over the course of his 48 year professional career.
Richard R. Hark is an analytical chemist and presently serves as a conservation scientist at Yale University’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. He is a subject matter expert in organic chemistry and chemical analysis, particularly RS, XRF and LIBS, having authored/co-authored over 200 peer reviewed publications and professional meetings abstracts and that have received almost 1,000 literature citations (H-index =17).
Dr. Hark is an Emeritus Professor at Juniata College, where he previously held the H. George Foster Endowed Chair in Chemistry. During his 26-year professional career, he also served as an Assistant and then Associate Professor at Marietta College. Dr. Hark holds a BS (cum laude) from the University of Rochester and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He has been honored with an Outstanding Faculty Award at both Marietta College and Juniata College and a Special Commendation from the Forensic Services Division of the US Secret Service.
RUSSELL S. HARMON is a geochemist and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Marine, Earth, & Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University who has authored/coauthored more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific publications and professional meeting abstracts and that have received almost 18,000 literature citations (H-index =71) in which a broad suite of analytical techniques have been applied to the chemical and isotopic analysis of geological media and natural fluids.
He is a recognized international authority on laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), having conducted the first comprehensive LIBS research on geological media and explosive/energetic materials at the Army Research Laboratory. Over his 50-year professional career, Dr. Harmon has held faculty positions at Michigan State University and Southern Methodist University as well as working extensively within government R&D organizations in the US and UK. He has extensive experience as an Army scientist while Program Manager for Terrestrial Sciences at the Army Research Office and as Director of the Army Corps of Engineers International Research Office.
Dr. Harmon holds a BA from the University of Texas, MS from Pennsylvania State University, and PhD from McMaster University. He is an elected Fellow of the International Association of GeoChemistry, Geological Society of America, National Speleological Society, and Army Research Laboratory.
Karen A. Harmon holds a BA in geology from the University of Texas and MS from McMaster University. She is a certified Professional Geologist in the State of Texas and has extensive environmental experience with the North Carolina Department of Environment & Natural Resources.
Other experience includes work with Brown, Root, & Northrup as a contractor to the NASA Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center and as a geochemist with the US Geological Survey, Glasgow University, the Scottish Universities & Reactor Centre, and the British Geological Survey. 