Stanley and Latif earn IChemE Award honours

Steven Stanley and Abdul Latif won the top individual prizes at last night's IChemE 2008 Innovation and Excellence Awards Dinner.

Stanley celebrated a double triumph thanks to his radball; an instrument that can map radiation hazards in laboratories.

Stanley, who works for the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory, was part of a team effort that clinched the HFL Risk Services Health & Safety Award, before also lifting the GSK Young Engineer of the year award.

Latif, based at the Universiti Sains Malaysia, won the NES Novel Engineering Solutions Award for his research into minimising pollution from industrial wastewater. A specialist in membranes for water treatment, Latif has invented a zero-discharge system for palm oil mill effluent, making Malaysia's considerable palm oil industry more sustainable.


The membrane returns around 85% of the effluent as clean water, suitable for drinking or recycling within the mill.

Latif has also developed Flocsorb, an environmentally-friendly product, to replace alum and polyaluminium chloride in water treatment plants. Flocsorb allows a plant's sludge to be used to fertilise fields rather than be disposed of as waste.

A Swedish company now wants to trial Latif's designs in a pilot plant at one of Malaysia's palm oil mills.

Stanley' radball marks an innovative step forward in the detection of radiation in nuclear facilities. Traditional methods involve sending an operator into the contaminated area with a hand-held device or using a heavy, expensive imaging device.

The Radball is an inexpensive device. The size of an orange, it consists of an inner spherical core and an outer collimation sheath. It needs no electricity and can be used in intensely contaminated and hard-to-reach zones. Radiation passing through the sheath creates opacity tracks, analysed by a computer to determine radiation location, type and intensity.

31-year-old Stanley has been a research Fellow at the laboratory for five years and developed the radball in just two, bringing new business and interest to the Nuclear Laboratory.

Almost 500 chemical engineers attended the 15th annual awards dinner, staged at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Birmingham, UK. Alongside the awards, the audience were entertained by Awards Dinner host, Chris Barrie (Red Dwarf and The Brittas Empire) and Elysium, a trio of female opera singers.

View the full list of winners and commended award entries

View photos taken at the awards dinner

Notes to Editors
1.For further press information, interviews and photography please contact:

Matt Stalker, Media and External Relations, IChemE
tel: 01788 534455; email: mstalker@icheme.org


2.About chemical engineers

Chemical, biochemical and process engineering is the application of science, maths and economics to the process of turning raw materials into everyday products. Professional chemical engineers design, construct and manage process operations all over the world. Pharmaceuticals, food and drink, synthetic fibres and clean drinking water are just some of the products where chemical engineering plays a central role.


3.About IChemE

IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers) is the hub for chemical, biochemical and process engineering professionals worldwide. With a global membership of some 28,000, the Institution is at the heart of the process community, promoting competence and a commitment to best practice, advancing the discipline for the benefit of society, encouraging young people in science and engineering and supporting the professional development of its members. For more information, visit www.icheme.org