News

Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Paul Amyotte can now add "Discovery Centre Hall of Fame Award winner" to his distinguished list of honors.

Amyotte, a professor in Dalhousie University’s Department of Process Engineering and Applied Science, will be honoured this week for his outstanding and globally recognized contributions to science and technology. Through his work, he has not only advanced safety practices worldwide but has also inspired Nova Scotia youth to consider careers in engineering.

Known around the world for his internationally recognized work in process safety and risk management, Amyotte has dedicated his career to understanding and preventing dust explosions, a specialized area of Chemical Engineering that he first discovered during his doctoral work.

“As I continued my research as a faculty member, I focused on the science of dust explosions – the physics of turbulence generation in dust clouds and the chemistry of explosion propagation and termination,” he explains. “Then Westray happened.”

On May 9, 1992, a methane gas explosion triggered a massive coal dust explosion inside the Westray coal mine in Plymouth, Nova Scotia. The disaster killed 26 miners working in the mine at the time. Becoming one of Canada’s worst mining disasters, the incident became a turning point for Amyotte, pushing him to explore the broader dimensions of process safety.

“I realized that process safety is not just about the natural and engineering sciences,” he says. “There is also a strong influence from the management and social sciences. I felt I could explain how, but not why, dust explosions occur. So I set out to learn more about things like safety culture, human error, and human factors, and learning from the past with an eye to the future."

The disaster led Amyotte to establish a mandatory process safety course for Dalhousie’s undergraduate chemical engineering students. The course, one of only a few across Canada, was an opportunity to teach students about the Westray Mining Disaster.

“In developing this course, I included lectures on process safety management and safety culture in addition to topics such as inherently safer design,” he explains. “And I made sure that each class, every year, heard the story of Westray; you don’t have to be a mining or chemical engineer – or even an engineer – to learn and heed the safety lessons from this disaster.”

Global Impact

Over the years, Amyotte’s work has had a transformative impact, shaping national standards such as the Public Guideline for Risk Management with the Canadian Engineering Qualifications Board. His expertise has been sought by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, where he provided expert testimony and training to investigators. His pioneering contributions to Inherently Safer Design (ISD) have influenced safety practices globally.

“Much of our work has focused on the application of the principles of ISD, which is a safety philosophy that employs the underlying chemistry and physics of materials and processes to reduce risk with less reliance on safety devices and procedural controls,” he explains. “Over the years, we have expended considerable effort to establish linkages between ISD and the prevention and mitigation of dust explosions."

He adds that the Dalhousie Process Safety Research Team was the first to recognize how these seemingly unrelated concepts could be integrated to enhance process safety. This innovative approach has since been adopted by researchers and practitioners around the world.

Beyond his research, Amyotte says some of his proudest moments have come from his work in the classroom.

“I believe that my most significant contribution in this regard is helping two generations of undergraduate engineering students learn how to design and operate safer industrial processes in this province and elsewhere.”

A Humble Heart

Despite his global influence, Amyotte’s heart remains in Nova Scotia. While he has mentored and educated countless students and community members, he is humble about the impact he has had on his community. Instead, he is quick to praise those who have inspired him throughout his career, particularly Prof. Rolf Eckhoff and Prof. Trevor Kletz, who he credits for their kindness and mentorship. Eckhoff, a leading expert on dust explosions, and Kletz, a pioneer of inherently safer design, encouraged Amyotte to author significant works in process safety.

“It is no coincidence that I have chosen to work in the areas for which Rolf and Trevor are so well known,” he says. “In my own teaching and research, I try to remember that when I was treated with kindness by these and other colleagues, I became more confident in my abilities as an engineer. In a similar vein, my research team members know that they are working with me, not for me.”

Amyotte believes that engineering is as much about learning from others as it is about personal expertise. With the support of his wife, and the diverse range of studies pursued by his children, he says their impact has helped expand his perspective on engineering.

“They all helped me to expand my definition of engineering to include the generation of societal wealth, to better understand the value of a social conscience, and to appreciate the role of not only safety culture but culture itself when studying process safety,” he says. “These are lessons from the arts (and related fields) that I have attempted to hold close throughout my engineering career.”

Winning this year’s Hall of Fame Discovery Award has given Amyotte a moment to reflect on the many people who have supported him throughout his journey as an educator, researcher, and practitioner. As a proud Nova Scotian, he says he feels honored to be recognized for his work and achievements. However, his humble nature shines through once again as he is quick to acknowledge the many researchers in Nova Scotia who have made equally significant contributions to the community.

“The extent to which I have been successful is a testament to the support of, again, my family, and also my employers,” he says. “I owe a large debt of gratitude to both the Technical University of Nova Scotia and Dalhousie University for providing me with a foundational platform from which to explore the worlds of process safety and chemical engineering. It has truly been an enjoyable journey.”