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LEADING chemical engineers have been recognised by IChemE at its first North America Awards reception in Vancouver, Canada.

The awards were presented as part of the Canadian Chemical Engineering Congress organised by the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE) held at the Hyatt Regency hotel. The guest speakers included IChemE deputy ceo Justin Blades, sustainability expert Roland Clift and IChemE’s senior ambassador in Canada, Shahana Buchanan.

Dow Corning clinched the IChemE North America Safety Award, which was sponsored by Chevron, and Nishit Doshi lifted the IChemE North America Young Chemical Engineer of the Year Award for his research at the University of California Santa Barbara.

The safety award recognises efforts by a company to assess and manage risks, or which has collaborated with government, industry or society to increase the understanding of risk. Dow Corning’s successful entry was a company-wide project to raise awareness of the importance of managing all aspects of process safety, and not just focus on traditional safety metrics which can mean plants are at risk. The company’s education and communication programme reached 12,000 employees across the world and created a safety culture shift.

Mike Snyder, Dow Corning’s director of corporate safety, industrial hygiene and loss prevention collected the award for the company and says the organisation is honoured to be recognised.

Doshi was recognised for his research into the development of biomaterials for drug delivery and diagnostic applications. The synthetic platelets he has developed are the most advanced to date and their use has implications in the early detection and treatment of cardiovascular disorders.

Earlier this month, IChemE staged a similar national awards event in Singapore and the Institution’s global awards event takes place in Manchester, UK in November. IChemE head of communications Matt Stalker says that there is increasing demand for national recognition in countries around the world, and regional events like those in North America and Singapore complement the global awards ceremony well.