North America and Africa join global process safety network
14th August 2014
Chemical engineers in the USA and South Africa are the latest experts to achieve Professional Process Safety Engineer registration – a new global initiative led by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) to improve process safety in the chemical and process industries.
Rod Prior, principal consultant at SHExcellence based in Gauteng, South Africa, and Dr Kiran Krishna, principal technical safety engineer at Shell Exploration and Production Company, Houston, USA, join nearly 70 other chemical engineers enrolled or registered as Professional Process Safety Engineers in Europe, Asia and Australasia.
The initiative sets a global standard for the discipline of process safety, and is peer reviewed and positioned at the same professional level as Chartered Engineer (CEng) and Professional Engineer (PEng).
Organisations currently housing registered Professional Process Safety Engineers include: ABB, AMEC, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Optimus, BG Group, SBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Arup and GHD.
Neil Atkinson, IChemE’s director of qualifications and international development, said: “Over the past two years, IChemE has been building its capacity and capability to roll-out the Professional Process Safety Engineer register, which has been warmly welcomed by the chemical and process industries.
“There are now nearly 70 ‘trailblazing’ chemical engineers enrolled or registered as Professional Process Safety Engineers. They will provide a core of registered engineers to mentor and support the growth of the standard over the next few years.
“We are particularly pleased to welcome Rod Prior and Kiran Krishna to the register. Their excellent achievement now means the initiative has foundations in major chemical engineering hubs on five continents: North America, Africa, Europe, Asia and Australasia.”
In North America, Shells’ Dr Kiran Krishna said: “I am truly honored to be a registered Professional Process Safety Engineer. I’m sure this initiative will attract more talent to process safety not only from chemical engineering but from other engineering disciplines too, ensuring that process safety has a healthy pipeline of practitioners for the future.”
“Having been one of the pioneers of process safety in its modern form in South Africa and introducing the FOPS Course has helped lead up to this achievement. It is also a tribute to the very varied experiences in the field around the world that I have been privileged to be involved in.
'I look forward to helping local applicants for the registration make the grade.”