Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 1986
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 1982
  • B.Sc., Engineering Science, Durham University, England, 1979
Licenses & Certifications
  • Professional Engineer, Alabama, #PE35697
  • Professional Engineer, Arkansas, #16481
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, California, #34290
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Florida, #84434
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Louisiana, #PE.0035054
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Massachusetts, #48202
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Maine, #PE12370
  • Professional Engineer, Michigan, #6201057546
  • Professional Engineer, New Jersey, #24GE05391800
  • Professional Engineer, New York, #89361
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Oklahoma, #28024
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Texas, #129541
  • Professional Engineer Mechanical, Washington, #47486
  • Asbestos Worker, pursuant to Title II of the Toxic Substance Control Act, 15 USC 2646
  • Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI)
  • Certified Fire Investigator (CFI)
  • National Waste Operations and Emergency Response Training, 29 CFR 1910.120
  • PADI Certified Open Water Scuba Diver
  • Short Course on Aircraft Fire protection/Mishap Investigation
Professional Honors
  • Associate Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Head of Fluid Mechanics Laboratory, 1990-1994.
  • Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1986-1990.
  • Dissertation Technical Committee Member. Li Chang, "Influence of Turbulence on Fuel Slick Fires with an Immersed Conductive Object." Worcester Polytechnic Institute. September 2021.
  • Guest Lecturer. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Course 10.490 Integrated Chemical Engineering. 2019 and 2020 (one lecture per year).
  • Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
  • Keynote Speaker: AIChE 2020 Virtual Spring Meeting and 16th Global Congress on Progress Safety. Topical Conference on Gas Utilization. August 18, 2020.
  • Session Chairman, LNG Plant Safety and Protection: 2014, 2013, 2012 and 2011 AIChE Spring Meetings & 10th, 9th, 8th and 7th Global Congress on Process Safety.
  • Keynote Speaker: AIChE 2014 Spring National Meeting, 10th Global Congress on Process Safety. Topical Conference on Gas Utilization, New Orleans, LA, March 30-April 3, 2014.
  • Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) installations and equipment, ISO /TC 67/ WG10: Committee Member, 2008-2014.
  • Outstanding Presentation Award, AIChE Spring Meeting, 2013
  • Excellence Award at the SAE 2006 World Congress & Exhibition
  • Lewis F. Moody Award for best paper on a subject useful in engineering practice presented to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 1993.
  • Henry L. Doherty Professor in Ocean Utilization, 1991-1993.
  • Chairman, Organizing Committee, Engineering Foundation Workshop, Davos, Switzerland, 1993.
  • National Science Foundation Review Panelist, Washington, DC, 1990.
  • National Science Foundation Group Leader, Acoustic Methods Workshop on Visualization of Particulate Two-Phase Flows, Washington, DC, 1990.
  • Diver in the Finnish Navy, rank Able Seaman, Distinguished Service, 1980.
  • Institute of Mechanical Engineers Prize for Outstanding Project Work (United Kingdom), 1979.
Professional Affiliations
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (Fellow)
  • American Institute of Chemical Engineers
  • International Association of Fire Investigators
  • Society of Fire Protection Engineering
  • Society of Petroleum Engineers
  • Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society
  • National Fire Protection Association
Languages
  • Finnish
  • French (France)

Dr. Kytömaa specializes in mechanical engineering and the analysis of thermal and flow processes. He applies his expertise to the investigation and prevention of failures in mechanical systems. 

Dr. Kytömaa also investigates fires and explosions and their origin and cause. He consults in the utilities, oil and gas, and chemical industries. Dr. Kytömaa's project experience includes consumer products, intellectual property matters, automobiles, aircraft, turbines, compressors, boilers, steam generators, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, instrumentation, nuclear waste management, heat transfer systems, fuel distribution, delivery and storage systems, including LNG facilities.

Dr. Kytömaa has decades of experience in the area of dynamics and thermal hydraulics of piping systems, valves and pipelines. He has developed flow modeling tools for such systems and their components and has applied these to drilling and downhole applications. He pioneered the modeling of the acoustics of drilling fluid piping systems for acoustic telemetry and Measurement-While-Drilling (MWD), which was one of the enabling technologies for directional drilling. Dr. Kytömaa has also developed ultrasonic techniques for both medical and engineering applications, including instrumentation for flow measurement and the characterization of dense suspensions. 

Dr. Kytömaa was Assistant Professor and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was head of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. He has also held positions as Visiting Professor at the Helsinki University of Technology and at the DOE Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Washington and served as Lecturer at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Kytömaa consulted for Teleco Oil Field Services, Inc., developing MWD technology and other downhole applications.