Lifetime Achievement Award

Purpose: The purpose of this award is to recognise a valuable and extensive contribution to the British Institute of NDT and the wider NDT/CM/SHM community by an individual who has been an active member of the Institute for an extensive period of time. 

Details of the award: The award will consist of a full-time registration at the NDT Annual Conference and accommodation for three nights, an engraved decanter and glasses together with a framed certificate signed by the President and the Chief Executive Officer, plus £300 cash. The award will also entitle the recipient to become a corresponding member of Council and any other committee if they so wish, subject to the usual exclusions.

Eligibility: The successful nominee must be reaching the end of their career and must have spent a substantial part of their career working in the field of NDT/CM/SHM or another Institute-supported discipline. They must have been a long-term active member of the British Institute of NDT and, during that period, must have supported the Institute as an active committee member. The successful nominee will stand out as having made a considerable contribution towards the charitable objectives of the Institute through having been proactive in the promotion of its activities. 

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: It is important that such a prestigious award is only awarded when it is deemed right to do so. ONE per year.

Nomination arrangements: The nomination must be seconded by an elected member of Council and receive a 75% positive response from elected members who are in attendance on the day of the election; a proxy vote may be submitted to Karen Cambridge by any non-attending Council members. 

Awarding arrangements: The award will be made at the NDT Annual Conference Dinner and will be awarded by the President. The nominee will be given a ten-minute slot to respond after receiving the award to talk about their career. 

Committee: Council.

Winners 

Simon Mills

The Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024 is awarded to Simon Mills, who has made a large contribution to the condition monitoring (CM) community over the last 30 years, nationally and internationally through the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT), the British Standards Institution (BSI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Simon was elected a Fellow of BINDT in 2015 and has served on many committees, working groups, Council and as a Vice President. He is currently Chair of the BINDT CM Sub-Committee and Vice Chair of the BINDT Technical Committee.

Simon was a founder member of ISO Sub-Committee 5 – Condition monitoring of machines, set up in 1993 under ISO/TC 108 – Mechanical vibration and shock. In 1994, he became Chair of BSI Sub-Committee GME/21/7 – Condition monitoring of machines, which was set up to mirror the ISO sub-committee, a role he held until this year. Simon also chaired ISO/TC 108/SC 5 in the early 2010s and BSI GME 21 – Vibration, shock and condition monitoring.

Simon was also a founder member of the first BINDT CM working group, the Vibration Monitoring (VM) Working Group, which had its inaugural meeting at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, in 2001. Several of the other original members are also still participating. With BINDT’s assistance through BSI, CM training and certification PCN certification was developed and is now in the current portfolio of BINDT’s CM PCN qualifications.

Simon graduated in mechanical engineering at Queen Mary College, University of London, in 1972. He then spent three years at Rolls-Royce, Industrial & Marine Division, Ansty, in its fuel systems department. He then gained a commission in the Royal Navy as a Marine Engineer Officer in 1976. He progressed through officer training at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), Dartmouth, and sea training in HMS Fearless, followed by the Marine Engineering Application Course (MEAC) at the Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon, with further sea training in HMS Ark Royal and engineering watchkeeping training in HMS Torquay. Then, as Assistant Marine Engineer Officer (AMEO) in HMS Falmouth, he gained his charge qualification.

Simon then joined the Directorate of Engineering Support (Naval), Portsmouth, which later became the Naval Maintenance Data Centre (NMDC) and worked on the development of computerised information feedback systems. During the Falklands conflict (Operation Corporate) he returned to HMS Falmouth as Deputy Marine Engineer Officer to bring the ship out of the reserve squadron. His last naval appointment was as a Project Engineer Officer at the National Gas Turbine Establishment, Pyestock, testing marine gas turbines under simulated marine conditions. On completion of his naval commission in 1984, Simon joined Schenck Ltd and gained valuable experience in dynamic balancing and vibration analysis.

In 1989, he joined Wolfson Maintenance,a consultancy that was then part of the University of Manchester. He set up maintenance management systems at over 40 industrial and marine sites and developed and presented CM, vibration and balancing training courses in the UK, Europe, Australia, India and the Middle East.

In 2004, Simon set up SpectrumCBM Ltd, a consultancy providing maintenance optimisation and techniques, including: condition-based maintenance, vibration monitoring and investigations and training. He also developed a web-based condition monitoring system and a comprehensive suite of training modules for the ISO 18436-2 vibration training standard syllabus (BINDT CM/GEN Appendix D) and other maintenance optimisation techniques.

In 2007, Simon also became Director of Training Services with AV Technology Ltd, a UK-based maintenance services, consultancy and training organisation. Simon helped AV Technology to achieve BINDT PCN accreditation for vibration analyst training and certification. He was a visiting lecturer at Manchester University and supervised the condition monitoring and vibration analysis modules in the university’s Maintenance Engineering MSc. In 2010, BINDT published the Vibration Monitoring and Analysis Handbook, compiled by Simon, which has sold over 1000 copies.

Leaving AVT in 2014, Simon has continued to train, mentor and support BINDT, BSI and ISO in training, certification and standardisation in CM and, as a member of the BINDT Education and Professional Development Committee, is working to expand the NDT apprenticeships to include condition monitoring. Simon has trained over 1000 candidates in vibration monitoring and analysis and other related techniques.