< International Hydrogen Conference
Plenary Speakers
Danielle Murphy, Ph.D., CFEI
Principal Engineer, Hydrogen Services lead, Failure Analysis
WHA International, Inc.
Dr. Danielle “Dani” Murphy is a Principal Mechanical and Forensic Engineer with WHA International, where she leads the company’s hydrogen service and consulting group. She is also a member of the Hydrogen Safety Panel, a multidisciplinary team of experts that provides guidance on the safe development and implementation of hydrogen technologies. Dani specializes in hydrogen and hazardous fluids safety, with expertise spanning combustion science, engineering design, hazard analysis, failure analysis, material compatibility, and applied research.
Dani received her PhD in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Chemical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines, where her research focused on hydrogen reforming. Her broader research experience includes work at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on hydrogen infrastructure and production technologies. Prior to joining WHA, Dani also worked as a forensic engineer investigating the origin and cause of fires and explosions. She is a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI).
At WHA, Dani supports industry by providing engineering consulting, hazards analysis, design reviews, failure investigations, and technical training focused on hydrogen safety and pressure system design. She also leads custom testing and research projects to investigate failure mechanisms and address technical gaps in safety practices, codes, and standards. Her work includes evaluating material compatibility and component selection as part of the broader system safety assessments. Her experience spans a wide range of hydrogen, fuel gas, and hazardous-fluid applications, including chemical processing, energy production and storage, electrolyzers, fuel cells, transportation, and emerging energy technologies.
Gary Whelan
Director of Research and Development
QuesTek Innovations
As Director of Research and Development at QuesTek Innovations LLC, Gary Whelan leads efforts to identify key materials challenges for industry innovators and apply Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) methodologies to resolve those challenges and enable technology advancements. At QuesTek Gary has worked on modeling and alloy design in Titanium, Nickel, Steel, Cast Iron, Aluminum, Niobium, Copper, and NiTi Shape Memory Alloy material systems, with an emphasis on additive manufacturing of structural alloys. Gary has led the development of a microstructure-sensitive fatigue modeling suite in QuesTek ICMD® software platform, as well as extensive model development in corrosion-fatigue, stress-corrosion-cracking, and hydrogen embrittlement. In particular, at QuesTek the R&D is actively developing a multi-scale modeling framework linking atomistic scale hydrogen embrittlement mechanisms via density functional theory (DFT) with microstructure scale fatigue simulations using Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method (CPFEM) and component scale FEM simulations. Gary has also designed novel alloys for other extreme environments such as burn resistant, printable nickel superalloys for extremely high-pressure oxygen in rocket combustion engines, and nickel superalloys for extreme temperatures in jet engines.
Conference Topics
Technical Conference Topics of discussion will include but are not limited to the following:
- H-Metal Interactions: H Generation, Uptake, Transport, and Trapping
- H Effects on Mechanical Properties: Fatigue
- H Effects on Mechanical Properties: Fracture
- H Effects on Mechanical Properties: Stress Corrosion Cracking
- H Effects on Mechanical Properties: High Temperature Behavior
- H Effect on Mechanical Properties: Mechanisms of Embrittlement
- Novel Characterization H-Metal Interactions
- Engineering Perspectives and Approaches to H Challenges
Call for Abstracts
One-page abstracts should be submitted as soon as possible and no later than the deadlines noted below. The abstract should include both the significance of the research as well as results that will be discussed in order to allow a scientific assessment of the work by the organizers.
Please choose at least one, and up to three, of the most relevant conference topics, as noted in the topics listed above, where you believe your work fits best.
Oral and Poster abstract submission deadlines: February 3, 2027 (midnight EST)
- Abstracts must be submitted electronically and prepared according to this template: docx.
- All submissions will be considered for both oral and poster presentation.
- Abstracts of all presentations will be made available to conference participants prior to the start of the conference.
- Awards will be presented to the top poster presentations.
Poster Guidelines
The best posters display a succinct statement of major conclusions at the beginning, followed by supporting text in later segments and a brief summary at the end. Click here for more information.
Poster Size: 1.0 meter wide and 1.5 meters in length (Portrait style).