My colleague and friend Trevor Kletz, who has died aged 91, was responsible for saving thousands of lives in his role as a safety adviser and renowned academic in high-risk industries such as petrochemicals, energy production and pharmaceuticals. His writings on human error and accident investigation refocused industry's emphasis away from individual lapses to systems failures and safer design. These concepts fostered a revolution in modern safety management thinking.
Trevor was born in Darlington to Jewish parents from a Russian immigrant background. When Trevor was 11 years old, an uncle gave him a chemistry set as a present, which influenced his decision to study chemistry at Liverpool University. He graduated in 1944 and joined Imperial Chemical Industries.
In 1978 he was appointed an industrial professor in the chemical engineering department at Loughborough University. In 1986 he became a visiting fellow and he was latterly a visiting professor at Loughborough and in 2003 an adjunct professor at Texas A&M University in the US.
He was appointed an OBE in 1997 and was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was also an honorary fellow of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health and the Safety and Reliability Society.
His published work includes 11 books and more than 100 reviewed papers on loss prevention and "process safety". His research was hugely influential in the way that industries build, operate and maintain their facilities to prevent major fires, explosions and accidents.
Trevor was a masterful communicator. He could reduce seemingly complicated issues to the simple fundamentals. He knew that he could save lives by spreading his insights and he had the perseverance, patience and generosity to repeat his messages until they were heard and understood.
A theme that runs through Trevor's work is drawing lessons from accidents. His mantra was "organisations have no memory" and he often observed: "There's an old saying that if you think safety is expensive, try an accident." He was a remarkable man, much admired by many generations of chemical engineers across the world.
In 1959, Trevor married Denise. They had two sons, Tony and Nigel, who survive him. Denise died in 1980.