Dale Preece

Hardworking and passionate in his field of research and engineering, Dr. Dale Preece has excelled since 2018 as the general manager of Blast Modeling Technology at Dyno Nobel Inc., a global leader in the commercial explosives industry. There, he has created concepts and guided the development of new revolutionary blast modeling capabilities, such as the Fracture Density Model and Geologic Element Motion. Backed by decades of professional experience with the basic physics of explosives safety, detonation, shock physics, and seismic charges, as well as the development of technologies and software, he previously served as a senior consultant on rock blasting and explosives engineering at Moncourt Group Pte. Ltd. In Singapore in 2018; and a senior manager of explosive applications research and a global technology manager of blast modeling development and support at Orica Mining Services at Orica Limited between 2010 and 2018. Prior to these appointments, he was active at Orica as a senior research associate for strategic marketing and technology from 2007 to 2010 and a member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories from 2005 to 2007. In the early stages of his career, Dr. Preece was a survey crew chief and then a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories for nine years.

In addition to his primary roles, Dr. Preece has had patents for body armor, explosive devices, and new blast modeling techniques, has contributed to more than 140 journal and conference publications, and, post-September 11^th, helped to develop the ability to conduct explosive-structure interaction studies and explosive vulnerability studies for many government facilities across the country. As a testament to his accomplishments in the field, he has been honored with three awards for two patents, a Sandia Employee Recognition Award for Meritorious Achievement in 2003, a President’s Award from the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE) in 2005, an Orica Recognition Award for “Single-level drawbell blasting” in 2013, and a Distinguished Service Award from the International Society of Explosives Engineers in 2017. He’s also a dedicated member of the International Ballistics Society, Society of Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration, the Institute of Makers of Explosives, and the Scientific Research Honor Society.

From an early age, Dr. Preece developed an interest in engineering field and by high school, he was being told by a teacher that he should pursue it as a career. He ultimately earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in civil engineering, with a focus on computer graphics, from Brigham Young University in 1979 and 1980, respectively, and a Doctor of Philosophy in the subject from the University of New Mexico in 1986. Because not many people in the world had expertise in computer graphics in the early 1980s, he was hired by Sandia National Laboratories, which only took the top 10 percent of professionals. His career in the industry truly started at that point. Looking toward the future, he hopes to continue his work as a general manger at Dyno Nobel because he enjoys what he does and the freedom to do the things he needs to in order to see projects developed.