New Chair Established in Transport Risk Management

Lloyd’s Register, the independent safety assurance and risk management organization, 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.”