Fiona Macleod is Professor of Process Safety at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of Sheffield. She grew up in Scotland and has worked in the chemical, pharmaceutical and power industries all over the world.

She studied chemical engineering at the University of Cambridge before joining an ICI graduate training scheme in 1983, going on to work for Hovione, Eastman, Victrex, Johnson Matthey, BP, Lomon Billions and Lynemouth Power.

Fiona joined the editorial panel of the IChemE Loss Prevention Bulletin (LPB) in 2013 after her first visit to the site of the 1984 Union Carbide accident in Bhopal, India. She now chairs the LPB panel and is always on the lookout for fresh articles and new volunteers.

Fiona was a contributing author to Trevor Kletz Compendium: His Process Safety Wisdom Updated for a New Generation (Elsevier 2021). She also writes fiction under her married name of Fiona Erskine. A fictionalised account of her first job in a Scottish fertiliser factory Phosphate Rocks: A Death in Ten Objects has just been republished. She is currently writing the sixth book in the Jaq Silver thriller series that started with The Chemical Detective (PointBlank 2019).

Plenary presentation

Bhopal, 40 years on

In her presentation, Fiona will mark the 40th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the lessons learned and the ongoing issues at the site.