About the Authors

Karen Hamberg

Karen joined Westport Innovations in 2001 and was appointed Director, Sustainability and Environmental Performance in 2008. Karen’s responsibilities include the Westport Carbon Project, the first global transportation project registered to the Voluntary Carbon Standard and Westport’s sustainability performance.

In addition to her role at Westport, Karen was seconded to Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR), in 2007 to research and write The Climate Change Guide: Responsible Business Action on Climate Change.

Karen also teaches within the School of Business at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.  Her academic credentials include a Certificate in Executive Management from Simon Fraser University (2005), a Master of Arts degree from Queen’s University (1995) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brandon University (1993).  She obtained her Canadian Registered Safety Professional (CRSP) designation in 2001.

Karen tweets @khamberg

Philip Hill

In the early 1980's, Professor Philip Hill at the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Mechanical Engineering Department began seeking improvements to natural gas combustion in engines. Working with a team of graduate students and research engineers, Phil focused on using natural gas as a fuel in diesel engines to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and particulate matter (PM), which are harmful to human health and the environment. At the same time, he wanted to preserve the performance, fuel economy, durability, and reliability characteristics for which the diesel engine is famous.

Phil selected to inject a small amount of diesel fuel before a main injection of natural gas to start combustion of the engine. With this method, he was able to successfully retain the characteristics of the diesel engine. And because the natural gas was injected at high pressure, the concept was called high pressure direct injection (HPDI) of natural gas. The team also developed the initial and unique injector concepts that enabled this double injection to take place within a single injector that fit in the same location as the original diesel injector.

Phil is currently the Senior Scientific Advisor at Westport Innovations and Professor Emeritus for the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UBC. He has a B.Sc. (Honors) from Queens University (1953), an M.Sc. from the University of Birmingham, England (1955), and an Sc.D. from MIT (1958).