Clifton A. Ericson

Mr. Ericson has 45 years of experience in the field of system safety, software safety, reliability and fault tree analysis. He currently works for the URS Corporation (formerly EG&G) where he provides technical analysis, consulting, oversight and training on system/software safety projects. He currently supports NAVAIR system safety on the UCAS and BAMS unmanned aircraft systems, and he is assisting in writing NAVAIR system safety policies and procedures. Mr. Ericson was employed as a Senior Principal Engineer for the Boeing Company for 35 years. At Boeing he worked in the fields of system safety, reliability, software engineering and computer programming. Mr. Ericson has been involved in all aspects of system safety, including hazard analysis, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), software safety, safety certification, safety documentation, safety research, new business proposals and safety training. He has worked on a diversity of projects, such as missile systems, people mover systems, commercial aircraft, B-1A/B-2 bombers, AWACS, EPRI solar power system and the Apollo Technical Integration program.

He served as President and Vice President of the System Safety Society and as Co-Chairman of the 16th International System Safety Conference. He was the technical program chairman for the 1998 and 2005 system safety conferences. He is the founder of the Puget Sound chapter (Seattle) of the System Safety Society. In 2000 he won the Boeing Apollo Award for safety consulting work on the International Space Station, and the Boeing Achievement Award for developing the Boeing fault tree analysis course. Mr. Ericson won the System Safety Society’s Presidents Achievement Award in 1998, 1999 and 2004 for outstanding work in the system safety field.

He is author of the books:

• Hazard Analysis Techniques for System Safety

• The Concise Encyclopedia of System Safety: Terms and Definitions

• System Safety Primer

• Fault Tree Analysis Primer

• Hazard Analysis Primer

He has published many technical articles in system and software safety and is currently editor of the Journal of System Safety (JSS), a publication of the System Safety Society. Mr. Ericson has taught courses on software safety and fault tree analysis at the University of Washington and in Singapore and Australia.

Mr. Ericson holds a BSEE from the University of Washington and an MBA from Seattle University.