Dr Bruce Wienke
Update on Deco and Helium Diving

Biography
Bruce Wienke is a Program Manager in the Nuclear Weapons Technology/ Simulation And Computing Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), with interests in computational decompression and models, gas transport, and phase mechanics. He contributes to underwater symposia, educational publications, technical periodicals and decompression workshops, having authored eight monographs (Reduced Gradient Bubble Model In Depth, Technical Diving In Depth, Decompression Theory, Physics, Physiology And Decompression Theory For The Technical And Commercial Diver, High Altitude Diving, Basic Diving Physics And Application, Diving Above Sea Level, Basic Decompression Theory And Application) and some 200 technical journal articles.

Diving environs include the Caribbean, South Pacific, Asia, inland and coastal United States, Hawaii, and polar Arctic and Antarctic for sundry technical, scientific, military, and recreational activities. He functions on the LANL Nuclear Emergency Strategy Team (NEST), in exercises involving Special Operations (SEAL, Delta), above and below water. He heads Southwest Enterprises, a consulting company for research and applications in overlapping areas of applied science and simulation, functions as an Expert Witness in diving litigation, and works with Rescue And Recovery Teams. Wienke served with USN Special Warfare in Southeast Asia in the 60s.

Wienke is anWorkshop Director/Instructor Trainer with the National Association Of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), serves on the Board Of Directors (Vice Chairman for Technical Diving, Technical and Decompression Review Board Member), is a Master Instructor with the Professional Association Of Diving Instructors (PADI) in various capacities (Instructor Review Committee), is an Institute Director with the YMCA, and is an Instructor Trainer/Technical Instructor with Scuba Diving International/Technical Diving International (SDI/TDI).

Wienke received a BS in physics and mathematics from Northern Michigan University, MS in nuclear physics from Marquette University, and PhD in particle physics from Northwestern University. He belongs to the American Physical Society (APS), American Nuclear Society (ANS), Society Of Industrial And Applied Mathematics (SIAM), South Pacific Underwater Medical Society (SPUMS), Undersea And Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS), and American Academy Of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Technical Committee Member of the American Nuclear Society.

Wienke, a former dive shop owner in Santa Fe, presently serves as a Consultant for decompression algorithms in the Industry. He has worked with DAN on applications of high performance computing and communications to diving, and is a Regional Data Coordinator for Project Dive Exploration. Scubapro, Suunto, Mares, Dacor, Zeagle, HydroSpace, Plexus, Abysmal Diving, GAP, and Atomic Aquatics engage him (or have) as Consultant for meter algorithms, and Expert Witness in diving litigation.

He is the developer of the Reduced Gradient Bubble Model (RGBM), a dual phase approach to staging diver ascents over an extended range of diving applications (altitude, nonstop, decompression, multiday, repetitive, multilevel, mixed gas, and saturation). A number of dive computers (Mares, Dacor, Suunto, Zeagle, Plexus, HydroSpace, and others coming online) incorporate the modified and full iterative RGBM into staging regimens, for technical and recreational diving.

He is also Associate Editor for the International Journal Of Aquatic Research And Education, and is a former Contributing Editor of Sources, the NAUI Training Publication. NAUI Technical Training has adopted the RGBM for technical and recreational training, having released RGBM trimix, helitrox, nitrox, and air tables. Wienke is a Contributing Editor of Advanced Diver magazine.