IOHA Announces that Roger Alesbury Will Be Recipient of Lifetime Achievement Award

Roger was nominated by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) with support from the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygiene (AIOH), the New Zealand Occupational Hygiene Society (NZOHS) and the Occupational Hygiene Training Association (OHTA). All four organizations have affirmed his remarkable leadership and tireless commitment to the occupational hygiene profession across a career of more than 40 years.

Roger has held senior management positions with global responsibilities in a number of multinational corporations, most notably BP where his 27 year career included 11 years as Director of Industrial Hygiene. He led these organisations in the successful local development of IH capability and programs, engaging with business leaders, mentoring early career professionals and developing common strategies and goals in improving health risk management.

In the early 2000s, looking to address the challenges facing occupational hygiene resource across the world, Roger and a small group of occupational hygienists began to develop the OHTA international training scheme and qualifications framework.  This non-profit scheme enables trainees across the globe to develop transferable, practical skills in a consistent way using freely available training materials. The scheme has enjoyed considerable success, particularly helping to grow professionals in developing economies. To date more than 8000 exams have been taken for OHTA courses in 50 countries. Roger’s enthusiasm and support have helped many countries adopt the system, with the OHTA concept now endorsed by 25 member associations (of which 24 are national occupational hygiene organisations). Roger was Chair of the Board of Directors when OHTA became a UK charity in 2016, and he continues to contribute his time and expertise as an adviser to the current Board.

A Past President of the British Occupational Hygiene Society, Roger has also been Chair of the Chemical Industries Association Health Advisory Group and Member of the European Commission Advisory Committee on Safety Hygiene and Health Protection at Work. In 2016 he was corecipient of the AIHA William P. Yant Award, while in 2011 he received the ACGIH William Steiger Memorial Award.

Roger has been invited to deliver a lecture at the IOHA 2018 conference on 25 September. Entitled “Capability in Occupational Hygiene”, the session will look at examples of developing programmes in parts of the world where there are few or no occupational hygiene resources and the focus is on finding or developing skilled people, equipment and basic facilities. Roger will share his thoughts and reflections based on a lifetime in occupational hygiene, and examine what it takes to build capability and grow occupational hygiene.

IOHA received eight nominations for this award, all distinguished individuals.  To qualify, the nominee must have been working in the field of occupational hygiene for at least fifteen years and must still be active in the field. The individual must have substantially furthered basic science, established occupational hygiene programmes, promoted the quality of occupational hygiene service, or contributed to the harmonization of occupational hygiene practice. Nominees are selected from candidates identified by Member Associations to an Awards Committee composed of the last three IOHA Past Presidents. The Awardee is then selected from the names submitted by an election.