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As the process industries experience the “great shift change,” developing the next generation of leaders requires more than technical competence. It demands ethical courage and the ability to influence others to uphold process safety under pressure. This paper explores how ethical decision-making and leadership behaviors can be intentionally developed through structured case-based learning derived from real engineering failures.

Have you felt buried under six feet of safety study recommendations that must be closed? Does it feel impossible to follow Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices (RAGAGEPs) to convert recommendations into engineered design reality? You are not alone.

Awarded Best Paper Award at the 2025 TEES Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center-TAMU (MKO) Safety & Risk Conference Abstract November 2025 — Greg Pajak, aeSolutions Senior Specialist, ICA — A midstream facility implemented a systematic alarm rationalization program across two critical units, achieving unprecedented reductions in urgent alarm loads. Unit A reduced urgent alarms from 45% to 7% (84% reduction), while Unit B decreased from 62% to 5% (92% reduction). This paper

What is hiding under the radar of a plant SIS? Risk assessments define hazard consequences with assumed initiating event frequencies.

Advances in hydrogen safety are forthcoming and continue to evolve. A selection of case studies will be shared in which hypothetical indoor

When performing risk assessments on process equipment, are you reviewing machinery as well?

Data is needed to confidently claim a parameter value, starting with an assumed or generic value, and periodically updating that value with

While there is extensive testing and validation of hazards from flammable vapors, less information is available regarding flammable liquid mists. A method is suggested for reasonably estimating the nature and severity of flammable liquid mist hazards by applying published mist property correlations to model inputs and outputs in dispersion modeling software. Better estimating these hazards is important to properly evaluate what mitigations will be needed. One common high fla

Have you ever had the problem of having a perfectly functional BPCS * interlock that you know is highly failure immune, yet when it comes time for the Hazard Analysis, you may only take one credit? Unfortunately, for facilities following the IEC 61511 safety lifecycle, any interlock not designed according to the standard is limited to one risk reduction credit. This can make meeting extremely low total mitigated event likelihood targets (such as 1x10-5 or 1x10-6) exceedingl

STAMP ( Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes ) is a relatively new accident causality model based on systems theory. It draws its main tenets from systems thinking that (1) accidents can happen even when there has been no failure, (2) that interactions between components of the system create emergent properties that can lead to failure, and (3) it treats accidents as a control problem rather than a failure problem. STPA (Systems Theoretic Process Analysis) or colloq