Joseph A. Falcon Received ASME Honorary Membership

NEW YORK, Nov. 21, 2011 – Joseph A. Falcon, P.E., a resident of Los Angeles, Calif., and senior partner of J.A. Falcon & Associates, was be honored by ASME for distinguished contributions to engineering practice including service as ASME president, and an initiator and member of ASME’s Board on Minorities and Women, and the Leadership Intern Program; more than four decades of leadership in the international power industry; and service as an engineering, science and technology educator.  He received Honorary Membership in ASME.

First awarded in 1880, the founding year of the Society, Honorary Membership recognizes a lifetime of service to engineering or related fields.  The award was conferred on Mr. Falcon during ASME’s 2011 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, held in Denver, Nov. 11 through 17.

Falcon’s six decades of experience in the energy field has encompassed nuclear power, geothermal facilities, fossil fuel-fired plants, alternative energy sources, and the geopolitics of oil and energy economics. 

In 1987, he founded J.A. Falcon & Associates, Consultants in Energy Systems.  The firm’s activities have been primarily in the area of cogeneration and independent power production. 

Prior to forming his own company, Falcon was employed by Bechtel Power Corporation as a project engineering manager (1970-87).  He worked on a variety of projects, including international assignments in 10 different countries.  His work ranged from nuclear power facilities to technology transfer. 

Falcon complemented his industrial career with a parallel academic career.  He was designated a distinguished lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Engineering Extension Division, where he served from 1953 to 1984.  He taught individual courses in power engineering, utility economics, nuclear power and other related areas.  In 1973, he helped to develop and was appointed the administrator of the Power Engineering Program leading to professional certification (a step between undergraduate and graduate school), a first for UCLA.  He was also a lecturer at the

University of Southern California, Los Angeles (1982-84) in a special program to introduce selected business school students to technology.

He has published a number of papers and given presentations on a variety of topics throughout his career including utility economics, Wall St. vis-a vis the financing of new power plants, alternative energy sources and, most recently, the consequences of the Fukushima meltdown and its impact on nuclear energy globally. 

An ASME Fellow, Falcon has been active at all levels of the Society since joining as a Student Section member in 1939.  Activities ranged from serving as a student guide at the Winter Annual meetings in New York City in the early 1940s to serving on the Board of Governors (1986-90) and as ASME president (1992-93).  While president, he signed technology transfer agreements with the leading engineering societies in Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Mexico.  He was an initiator and member of the Board on Minorities and Women, the Leadership Intern Program and the International Gas Turbine Institute.  He was also vice president of the Energy Conversion Group; chair of the Mexico Section; and member of the Executive Committee and the ASME representative to UPADI, the Pan American Federation of Engineering Societies. 

He is currently active on the Energy Committee and recently authored the ethanol fuels section for the ASME publication titled Energy Choices–A Guide to Facts and Perspectives.  In 1991, Falcon received the Edwin F. Church Medal.

Falcon earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Polytechnic Institute of New York University, N.Y., in 1943; and his master’s in mechanical engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, N.J.) in 1947.  He received a certificate in business management at the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1955.  Falcon is a registered professional engineer in California and New York.

About ASME ASME helps the global engineering community develop solutions to real world challenges. Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the vital role of the engineer in society. ASME codes and standards, publications, conferences, continuing education and professional development programs provide a foundation for advancing technical knowledge and a safer world.