IChemE names safety prize in Sam Mannan’s honour

SAM Mannan, a safety expert who died last year, will have a prize named in his honour at IChemE’s Hazards conference.

Mannan, who passed away in September, was the Executive Director of the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center (MKOPSC) and Regents Professor and holder of the T Michael O'Connor Chair in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He helped develop the MKOPSC into a leading international process safety research and education centre, establishing undergraduate certificates and post-graduate qualifications in process safety.

As a tribute to his career, IChemE has renamed the poster prize given at its annual Hazards process safety conference. It will now be called the Sam Mannan Poster Prize, which will be given for the first time at Hazards 29 in Birmingham, UK, in May.

Trish Kerin, Director of the IChemE Safety Centre, said: “Throughout my career, Sam Mannan has always been a great friend and supporter of our work at the IChemE Safety Centre. He was passionate about teaching process safety to undergraduates and postgraduates, so it is fitting for the Hazards poster prize to be renamed in his honour.

“His legacy in process safety lives on with the fantastic work being done by the Mary O’Connor Process Safety Center. He has helped shape the careers of so many in the field and he will be greatly missed by process safety professionals around the world.”

The IChemE Safety Centre works with MKOPSC to explore key challenges in process safety and share lessons learned through workshops, events and publications. In 2017, both organisations collaborated to launch Process Safety for the 21st Century, a report which sets out a road map for the future of process safety.

Mannan was a Fellow of IChemE and a Professional Process Safety Engineer. He delivered the first Trevor Kletz memorial lecture at Hazards 25 in Edinburgh, UK in 2015. His expertise in safety led to him serving as a consultant to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board in 2003.