What makes an engineer a Risk Engineer?
Thoughts on the science of risk and the role of risk engineers
Author Archive: Derek Viner
The Theory of Perfect People – part 2
I suggested in part 1 that imperfect people are normal and perfect people are a figment of our collective imagination. This is a catchy idea but I am sure the reality is that personal qualities exist on a scale…
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The Theory of Perfect People – part 1
The enduring nature of Murphy’s reputation is fascinating in its own right. I rather like the idea that the essence of risk engineering can be expressed by a household name. Whether what we know as his law is in fact…
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Risk Engineering and Murphy’s Law
There are two fundamental aspects of risk and its control that are literally household words. The first is the safety valve. This small item of risk engineering would have come to prominence in the early days of steam and it…
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Aristotle on cause
While moving my home library I came across St Thomas Aquinas’ work entitled Philosophical Texts. St Thomas (1275 to 1274) was a well known and well regarded Sicilian philosopher. My translation by Thomas Gilby was published in 1951 by the…
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Some thoughts on perception of cause by different people
While I have a view that the search for causes is somewhat futile and the effort is misplaced, I am nevertheless interested in the reality of this. What if a number of people were asked to independently look at the…
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Edition with Errata corrected
Editions with errata corrected became available from approximately November 2020.
Occupational risk control in the eyes of an environmentalist
Dr Mike Mentis mmentis@saol.com At Xmas 2018 I shook hands with Derek Viner. We’d last seen each other 56 years previously when we finished school. ‘What have you been up to?’ we each asked. Derek started his career as an…
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Page 94 typographical error
In the fourth sentence of the second paragraph, the text should read “it is highly unlikely in Risk work…”, not “highly uniquely”.