Professor Stephen Richardson acted as an expert witness on the Piper Alpha and Ocean Odyssey inquiries, and as a result he has considerable experience of giving expert testimony. He was awarded the Moulton Medal of the Institution of Chemical Engineers in 1993 the Franklin Medal in 2003, for his work on computer program ‘BLOWDOWN’ and related matters – which has since been used in the design of well over 200 offshore and 40 onshore oil and gas platform installations.

Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) Professor Stephen Richardson graduated from Imperial College London in 1972, and has since served as a Research Fellow, Lecturer, and Professor of Chemical Engineering in academia – before being appointed Head of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London in 2001. In this engaging talk, esteemed Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) will recount the events leading to this tragedy and draw some of the many lessons that can be learned from it. Financial losses of £2 billion (£4.8 billion, 2015) were sustained and a safety revolution spread across the industry. Within hours, 166 men died and over 10% of the UK’s oil production ceased. Late in the evening of 6 July 1988, there was an explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea. On the 25th of October, we will be exploring the events leading up to the tragedy, and reflect on what can be learned and applied in today’s industry. We are excited to announce that the IChemE London & South East Members Group and Safety & Loss Prevention Special Interest Group have joined in collaboration to host an engaging technical talk on the Piper Alpha disaster, presented by esteemed Professor Stephen Richardson (FREng, CBE) at Imperial.

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