Name Trevor Kletz Role Author | Died October 31, 2013 | |
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Books Hazop and hazan, An engineer's view of h, Still Going Wrong!: Case Hist, What Went Wrong?: Case Hist, Process plants | ||
Remembering trevor kletz
Trevor Asher Kletz, OBE, FREng, FRSC, FIChemE (1922–31 October 2013) was a prolific British author on the topic of chemical engineering safety. He is credited with introducing the concept of inherent safety, and was a major promoter of Hazop. He is listed in The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History.
Contents
- Remembering trevor kletz
- Trevor kletz about negative attitude of managers
- Early life and education
- Professional life
- Honours
- Books sole author
- Books joint author
- References
Trevor kletz about negative attitude of managers
Early life and education
Kletz was born in 1922 in Darlington of Jewish parents, from a Russian immigrant background. He attended The King's School, Chester, then the University of Liverpool, where he graduated in chemistry in 1944 and joined ICI the same year. During the Second World War, he was a member of the Home Guard. In 1959 he married Denise (died 1980) and they had two sons.
Professional life
In ICI he worked initially as a research chemist, then became plant manager (in turn) of iso-octane, acetone and tar acids plants. After further experience in process investigation and commissioning in the Technical Department, in 1961 he became assistant works manager on the Olefines works. In 1968, he was appointed the first Technical Safety Advisor.
During this time, ICI developed hazard and operability studies, now known as Hazop, for which he was an enthusiastic advocate, and the author of the first book on the subject.
When he retired in 1982 he had established a safety culture within the company based on communication, and had begun a second career and an international reputation as an author and speaker. Most of his books are concerned with case studies from industry and the human and technical causes. Shortly after his retirement he expanded a paper entitled "What you don't have, can't leak" into the book which began the concept of inherent safety.
Honours
He was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was awarded medals by the latter two institutions.
He was a visiting Professor of Chemical Engineering at Loughborough University and an adjunct professor of the Texas A&M University Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering.
In 1997 he was awarded the OBE for services to industrial safety.
In 2009 he received the Mond Award for Health and Safety of the Society of Chemical Industry, where he was said to be a 'founding father' of safety in the chemical industry.