Michael S Varat

Mr. Michael S. Varat is the Technical Director of the transportation accident reconstruction consulting firm, KEVA Engineering, LLC, located in Camarillo, California. For the past 19 years, Mr. Varat has analyzed transportation collisions involving automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, and bicycles and has consulted with manufacturing corporations, vehicle fleets, municipalities, insurance companies, and attorneys in the areas of accident reconstruction, vehicle dynamics, and vehicle safety. Mr. Varat received his mechanical engineering degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and he has been a member of SAE International for more than 20 years. Mr. Varat has organized two SAE TOPTEC conferences and one SAE symposium on accident reconstruction. He also has organized an SAE TOPTEC conference on automotive seat design. For the last five years, Mr. Varat has worked with his co-organizers to put together the SAE International Congress sessions on accident reconstruction. For his contributions to the SAE Engineering Meetings Board, Mr. Varat is receiving the 2008 Forrest F. McFarland Award from SAE International. Mr. Varat has authored eight SAE technical papers, as well as publications for the International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV), the International Symposium on Automotive Technology & Automation (ISATA), the International Motorcycle Conference organized by the Institute Fur Zweiradsicherheit (IFZ), the Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference (CMRSC) and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF). He has lectured at accident reconstruction conferences and has served on research committees, technical publication peer- review committees, engineering standards committees, and editorial advisory boards. Mr. Varat is an active participating member of SAE International, the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASTM International, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Although he is actively involved in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) sports car racing, motorcycles, skiing, and scuba diving, Mr. Varat's greatest enjoyment is spending time with his wife, Robyn, and their children, Jacob and Ashley.