Roy Thomas works as a Senior Principal Engineer with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and is based in Houston, TX. He has worked with ABS for the past 21 years. In his current role, he serves as the ABS engineering liaison to the U.S. Coast Guard, as well as the ISO/TC8 – U.S Technical Advisory Group. He also serves as the Americas technical lead for rule development, engineering equivalencies and interpretations. He has formerly served as the Manager of the Corporate Chief Engineer’s Office and Managing Principal of the Underwater Systems and Lifting Appliances Group.
Mr. Thomas has extensive experience with the certification of underwater vehicles, systems and hyperbaric facilities for commercial and military applications. He has served as the lead design review engineer at ABS on numerous projects involving underwater vehicles, systems and hyperbaric facilities of every possible form and design. Over the years, he has played an active role in updating the ABS Rules for Underwater Vehicles, Systems and Hyperbaric Facilities and has authored new sections on Underwater Habitats, Diving Systems, Lock-Out Submersibles, Ambient-Pressure Submersibles, Atmospheric Diving Suits, AUVs, ROVs, Lithium Batteries, etc.
Mr. Thomas is actively involved with various industry committees and currently serves as the Chair of the ASME PVHO – Subcommittee on Diving Systems, as well as the Subcommittee on Submersibles. He also currently serves as the Chair of the SNAME T&R Panel OC-6 and is coordinating the efforts to update the SNAME textbook “Submersible Vehicle Systems Design”.
Mr. Thomas holds a master’s degree in Ocean and Naval Architectural Engineering from Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada with a specialization in underwater vehicles and systems. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Marine Engineering from Marine Engineering and Research Institute, India.