• 2018 HENAAC Luminary •

Maintaining the safety and productivity of a major energy company’s facilities is a complex and crucial job.  With more than 34 years of experience, Mauricio Calva has proven successful at this challenge in his role as the Nondestructive Examination Expert for the Chevron Energy Technology Company.

While his responsibilities cover areas including industrial services, instrumentation design, applications development and research, he is best known as a leader in the proposal of novel inspection solutions for Chevron’s refinery and distribution equipment. His research has allowed the company to increase safety and reduce costs while increasing the quality of its inspection data.

His long career in nondestructive examinations and inspection checks of equipment conditions has given Mr. Calva the opportunity to go deep inside places few people ever access. These include the inside of airplane structures, submarines and ships; bridge legs, sewers and pits; near nuclear reactors; inside process equipment in chemical, oil, pharmaceuticals, food industry and the like; and hanging from a rope ladder on the side of a highway bridge.  It has also allowed him to travel around the world, visiting most of the Western hemisphere and Europe as well as a few countries in Asia.

Mr. Calva’s work with robotic inspection methods led to his becoming a member of the Board of Directors at euRobotics.  He also conceived and organized the Sprint Robotics Forum in Houston in 2016, an event with over 150 participants and 23 exhibitors, including robotic developers, system integrators and service providers. In his free time, he volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America near his home in Bellaire, Texas, and he composes music for the piano.

Born in Mexico City, Mr. Calva came from a family deeply involved with science and engineering.  His father was a chemical engineer at PEMEX, Mexico’s state-owned oil giant, and his mother taught chemistry at the high school and college levels. He earned a Physics Engineering Degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana de México, and a Master’s Degree in Materials Physics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM).