Ron Westrum is an American sociologist.
Born in Chicago in 1945, Westrum earned a B.A. (cum laude) in Social Relations in 1966 from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1972 from the University of Chicago.
Ron Westrum is a recognized expert on organizational dynamics in the aviation field. He has made many presentations to international scientific groups such as NATO Advanced Research Institutes, FAA and NTSB-sponsored seminars, the World Bank seminar on Systems Safety, and the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization Regional Seminar in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia, on "Organizational Dynamics."
He is the author of Complex Organizations: Growth, Struggle, and Change, (with Kamil Samaha), Prentice-Hall, 1984; and of Sidewinder: Creative Missile Development at China Lake. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 1999. 33l pp.
In April 1996, Westrum was a keynote speaker at the International Civil Aviation Organization Third Global Seminar on Flight Safety and Human Factors, Auckland, New Zealand. He spoke to the National Transportation Safety Board on "Corporate Culture and Safety" in April, 1997. Westrum gave three lectures at the Sorbonne in Paris as an invited speaker in 1999.The FDA Advisory Panel on Blood Safety and Availability and the American Association of Blood Banks, invited him to their conferences in 1999 and in 2000. In 2002-2003, Westrum served on a National Research Council panel to evaluate NASA's program on Engineering Complex Systems.
As of 1987,
He was the Scientist Guest of Honor at ConFusion XXX (January 23-25, 2004).