In 1982, he joined the Low Speed Aerodynamics Laboratory at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa. He became part of the NRC team assembled to study the sinking of the Ocean Ranger oil rig in support of the Royal Commission investigation into that tragedy. He designed and led the aerodynamics tests, which established the wind loads acting on the rig. Between 1981 and 1992, he was also a part-time lecturer at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, teaching graduate courses on structural dynamics and random vibrations.