“I am very honoured to receive the Mukaidono Safety Award and would like to thank those who nominated me and IGSAP’s Mukaidono Safety Award Review Committee.

I began my journey in functional safety 40 years ago when I was a UK safety regulator and had to make judgements on the safety of machinery and process plants based on electromechanical devices and systems. At that time, concerns were raised about the adoption of programmable electronic systems for implementing safety functions.

However, it was clear that computer control systems used for control of robots and process plants would soon be used to carry out safety functions for those robots and process plants. The challenge was the quantum change in complexity and how best to move forward to enable this complex technology to be used that would be both safe and economically viable.

The decision at that time to target international standards as a basis for the way forward proved a good decision because it brought together the expertise of many countries… including Japan which has played, and is still playing, a major role in the development of international standards covering functional safety.

In the context of the development of a standardization platform for complex safety systems, specifically IEC 61508, I have been privileged to be part of the massive team effort in its development which involved many countries and many international experts, and I am delighted to receive this award.”