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Dr. M. Sam Mannan and researchers in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University were featured on the cover of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Journal.

Dr. M. Sam Mannan

Mannan, director of the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and regents professor, was assisted by Olga Reyes-Valdes, a graduate student in the department, and Drs. Sonny Sachdeva, Hao Chen, Yi Liu and Delphine Laboureur, all former postdoctoral researchers with the center.

The research article, titled “Trends and Challenges in Process Safety,” was featured in the November issue of the peer-reviewed AIChE Journal. In addition to the publication of the article and being chosen as the cover story, their research was highlighted in a summary article in the November 2015 issue of the Chemical Engineering Progress, which highlights the importance of this article.

“Chemicals play a key role in today’s high-tech world,” Mannan wrote. “The chemical industry is linked to every technologically advanced industry; only a handful of the goods and services we enjoy on a daily basis would exist without essential chemical products. 

The focus of the research, process safety, is a concept that is applicable across various industries. It introduces base knowledge of chemical interactions into everyday engineering procedures. This understanding assists experts working with complex and dynamic chemical interactions. The research brings together the science of material characteristics and behaviors, human-machine interfaces and management systems to assist with equipment design, sustainability, reliability engineering and organizational science.

The researchers suggest a systematic approach to process safety is needed to ensure safety of the public, researchers and the environment. Such an approach would ensure safety not only during normal production, but also during abnormal and disaster situations. 

“An engineer must function as a member of the global community,” Mannan wrote. “This means not only competing in a global marketplace, but also acting as a professional who shares global responsibilities.”

For more information about the Mary Kay O’Connor Process Safety Center and process safety, please visit the center’s website