New chair established in transport risk management
Lloyd's Register, the independent safety assurance and risk
management organisation, and Imperial College London have announced
the establishment of the Lloyd's Register Chair in Transport Risk
Management at Imperial College. The Chair is located in the Centre
for Transport Studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, and will be funded by Lloyd's Register, initially for
five years.
The first holder of the Chair will be Professor Andrew Evans,
who will move to Imperial College on January 1, 2004. Professor
Evans is at present Professor of Transport Safety in the sister
Centre for Transport Studies at University College London, where he
has been since 1991.
Andrew Evans is an economist and statistician. His safety
interests have been in risk estimation, risk appraisal, the
economics of safety, and safety regulation. He has worked
particularly on economic and statistical analyses of train
accidents, and has contributed to many of the debates on train
accident risks and safety measures in the past decade. He has also
worked on safety in other modes, including roads and aviation, and
on inter-modal safety comparisons.
In addition to the new Chair, Lloyd's Register will fund a
programme of related research in best practice engineering risk
management, with special reference to rail. This will include
organisational, management and regulatory issues, as well as
engineering practices and procedures. Some of this will build on
work initiated 18 months ago, addressing best practice in the
management of safety critical engineering assets, across a range of
industry sectors including rail, oil and gas, power and the
utilities.
Over the last three years, Lloyd's Register has begun to adapt
and develop its considerable safety-related engineering skills,
best known through its ship safety and classification work, and oil
and gas verification activities, into other transport areas,
starting with the rail sector.
David Moorhouse, Executive Chairman of Lloyd's Register,
comments: "I am delighted to announce the establishment of this
Chair at Imperial College which I believe will have a major impact
on transport risk management. It is a natural extension of our own
research and development work in support of the industries we
serve, and very much in line with our constitutional aim to enhance
the safety of life and property.
" We are working to bring Lloyd's Register's considerable
experience of improving safety, particularly in the marine and
offshore sectors, to other areas. We are committed to working with
all stakeholders in the rail industry to achieve an even safer
future and this Chair will play a key role in examining the factors
that influence the management of safety and asset-related
risks."
Professor John Polak, Head of the Centre for Transport Studies
at Imperial College London comments: "We are delighted to be able
to extend our collaboration with Lloyd's Register through the
establishment of this Chair, which is the first of its kind in the
UK. The area of transport risk management is one of enormous
intellectual challenge and is also of great practical significance
to the rail sector, and indeed the wider transport industry. This
new Chair provides an exceptional opportunity for Imperial College
to play a leading role in the development of the discipline and to
shape its influence on engineering practice.
"Professor Evans is an outstanding scholar with a deep knowledge
of the rail sector and it is a great pleasure to welcome him to
Imperial College. We look forward with enthusiasm to working with
him in developing these exciting opportunities."
Ends.
Notes to editors
About Lloyd's Register
Lloyd's Register is an independent risk management organisation.
The Lloyd's Register Group works to help improve its clients'
quality, safety, environmental and business performance throughout
the world. Its expertise and activities cover shipping, railways,
other land-based industries, and oil and gas.
Through its constitution, Lloyd's Register is directed 'to
secure, for the benefit of the community, high technical standards
of design, manufacture, construction, maintenance, operation, and
performance, for the purpose of enhancing the safety of life and
property both at sea and on land'.
For more information, contact
Martin Cottam, Lloyd's Register Energy & Transportation
Tel: +44 (0)20 7423 2688
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7423 1525
Email:
martin.cottam@lr.org
About Imperial College London
Consistently
rated in the top three UK university institutions, Imperial College
London is a world leading science-based university whose reputation
for excellence in teaching and research attracts students (10,000)
and staff (5,000) of the highest international quality.
Innovative research at the College explores the interface
between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers
practical solutions that enhance the quality of life and the
environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.
For more information, contact
Judith H Moore, Press Officer, Imperial College London
Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6702
Mobile: +44 (0)7803 886248
Email:
j.h.moore@imperial.ac.uk
www.imperial.ac.uk
About Andrew Evans
Andrew Evans' first degree was in mathematics from the University
of Cambridge, followed by a diploma in mathematical statistics. His
PhD from the University of Birmingham examined the effects of the
original West Coast Main Line electrification, and he also has an
MSc in economics from the London School of Economics.
Andrew has spent the majority of his career as an academic staff
member of British Universities, though he had a four-year period as
a statistician in the Department of the Environment, and four years
at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia. He has worked mainly
in the field of transport, though not in transport safety until
1991, when he took up the post of Professor of Transport Safety at
the University of London. The post was at the time joint between
University College London and Imperial College, and funded by
London Transport.
In his 13 years as Professor of Transport Safety, Andrew has
specialised particularly in railway safety, and has carried out
extensive research on railway accidents and railway safety. He has
participated in many of the railway safety debates of the last
decade, including those on automatic train protection, Mark 1
rolling stock, the train protection and warning system, collisions
between trains and road vehicles, and the European Rail Traffic
Management system.
He has had many public roles related to rail safety, including
being Chairman of the Rail Safety Working Party of the
Parliamentary Advisory Council on Transport Safety, and being
advisor and expert witness at the Joint Inquiry into Train
Protection Systems and at the Ladbroke Grove Accident Public
Inquiry in 2000, and being a member of the Health and Safety
Commission committee reviewing the obstruction of railway by road
vehicles in 2001.
Andrew is married with three children, and lives in London.
For more information
Martin Cottam
Lloyd's Register
Energy & Transportation
71 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 4BS, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7423 2688
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7423 1525
Email:
martin.cottam@lr.org
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Group.
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are exempt charities under the UK Charities Act 1993.