The Hugh MacColl Award

Award criteria

Purpose: To recognise the contribution by an individual to teaching, training, education and professional development in NDT/CM/SHM over a period of at least 2-10 years. 

Details of the award: The award will consist of a certificate backed by £350 cash, an invitation to the NDT Annual Conference Dinner and one night’s accommodation. In the case of a group award, the invitation to the NDT Annual Conference Dinner will be made to one representative.

Eligibility: For a significant contribution over a period of at least 2-10 years by an individual to teaching, training, education and professional development in NDT/CM/SHM.

The proposer of the award should be a voting member of the Institute. If they are not, they will need to ensure the application is endorsed by an Institute voting member.

Frequency: The prize will be awarded annually and will only be issued if suitable nominations are received.

Nomination arrangements: Nominations should be submitted by email to: karen.cambridge@bindt.org

Nominations for the award will be reviewed by the Membership, Qualification and Education (MQ&E) Committee. If there is only one nomination, then MQ&E should vote to confirm whether the nomination is eligible and, if so, to approve the award. 

If there is more than one nomination, then the entries should be sent for judging by a panel set up for the purpose. Four members of the panel are to be appointed by MQ&E. Each judge will be invited to score the entries on a point scale of 0 to 3 and send the scores to Karen Cambridge, who will total the scores, and the entry receiving the most points will be declared the winner.  

Awarding arrangements: The award will be made at the NDT Annual Conference Dinner and will be awarded by the Chair of MQ&E.

Committee: MQ&E Committee.

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Winners

2023 winner: Joe Heigold

The Hugh MacColl Award for 2023 is awarded to Joe Heigold.

Joe is currently employed as a Technical and Certification Engineer at the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), having joined the Institute on 1 September 2023.

During the previous five years and seven months, Joe was employed with Skills Training UK Ltd and tasked with tutoring non-destructive testing (NDT) apprentices at Levels 2 and 3, along with providing technical support when required to Level 6 apprentices. In addition to progressing technical theoretical knowledge of the NDT methods during the early and middle stages of an apprenticeship, he also assisted in the review of the end-point assessment (EPA) project report, advising on the form and content of the report and the associated presentation, both of which would ultimately be presented to the EPA panel at BINDT. During that time, Joe directly engaged with approximately 218 apprentices and 92 organisations, generating around 190 PCN Level 2 certifications in a variety of methods.

The bulk of Joe’s career was spent in the steel industry, where he provided training, qualification and ongoing support to around 86 multi-method operators of largely automated and semi-automated NDT inspection systems for steel bar. For a period of time, an NDT apprenticeship was developed in conjunction with the internal training department that sat alongside technical apprenticeships in order to offer optional development routes for young individuals. This aimed to rebalance the age demographic and replenish the NDT teams as natural wastage ultimately depleted the number of senior members.

Past winners:
1989    Chief Tech G Metcalfe
1990    Mr G Elliott
1991    Mr M J Nicholas
1992    Dr S R Oaten
1998    Mr K Coultate
1999    No Award
2000    No Award
2001    No Award
2002    No Award
2003    Mr T Armitt
2004    No Award
2005    No Award
2006    No Award
2007    Mr C Ward
2008    No Award
2009    No Award
2010    No Award
2011    No Award
2012    Mr J Drury
2013    No Award
2014    No Award
2015    No Award
2016    No Award
2017    Doug O’Hare
2018    Ian Jones
2019    No Award
2020    Dr Abdeldjalil Bennecer
2021    Neil Harrap
2022    Sam Cunningham

A nomination form can be downloaded here.

Details of all Institute awards can be found here.