Mahesh Murthy, a chemical engineer based in Australia, was confirmed as one of the country's first Professional Process Safety Engineers at the Hazards Australasia conference in Perth.
The register of qualified professionals was announced last year by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) to help improve safety across all engineering professions around the world. Since then, the Professional Process Safety Engineer accreditation has attracted interest from engineers and major organizations based in 38 different countries.
Murthy, a senior process engineer at ConocoPhillips, says he was honored by the award: "With recognition, comes challenges and responsibilities, and as part of a small group of professionals, it makes me proud to be associated with people who have conceived the novel initiative of recognizing and setting standards for a community that largely works behind the scenes to make world a safe place to live in."
Others to receive the registration were Arup's senior associate in fire risk and security, Nigel Cann, and GHD's risk and safety manager, Simon Casey.
David Brown, chief executive of IChemE, says, "We congratulate Mahesh and all of our newly registered Professional Process Safety Engineers, and also the team in Australia for helping to implement our new professional registration aimed at senior process safety practitioners."