WASHINGTON -- University of Texas at Dallas President Dr. David Daniel has been named to a national committee that will conduct analysis of the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Daniel will be among those working with chair Donald C. Winter, former secretary of the Navy. The U.S. department of the Interior sought out the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council to take on the analysis to complement and inform investigations of the oil spill by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Mineral Management Service.

The committee, which is still being finalized, will meet for the first time on July 19-23 in Kenner, La., and visit the site of the oil spill. An interim letter report, containing preliminary finding and recommendations, is scheduled for release on October 31, 2010. A final report will be produced in 2011.

Daniel, who is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been the UTD President since 2005.

To view more information and biographies of all committee members, click here.