Personal Contribution Award

Award criteria

Purpose: The purpose of this award is to recognise a valuable and significant personal contribution to the British Institute of NDT and the wider NDT/CM/SHM community. This award acknowledges individuals who have contributed to and influenced the wellbeing of the Institute. 

Details of the award: The award will consist of a gift to the value of £300, an invitation to the NDT Annual Conference Dinner and one night’s accommodation, a framed certificate signed by the President and the Chief Executive Officer, together with a personalised letter from the President.

Eligibility: The successful nominee must have been a long-term active member of the British Institute of NDT (minimum of ten years) who, during that period, must have supported the Institute as an active committee member. The successful nominee will stand out as having made a considerable personal contribution towards the charitable objectives of the Institute.  

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: There is no periodicity for this award; suitable recipients will emerge from time to time and their selection will be obvious by their acknowledged contribution. It will be possible for more than one candidate to be given this award in the same calendar 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; one 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.

Committee: MQ&E Committee and ratified by Council.

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Winners

2024 winner: Dr Colin Brett

The Personal Contribution Award for 2024 is awarded to Dr Colin Brett in recognition of his professional career, which has spanned 40 years in the non-destructive testing (NDT) sector. From 1984 to 2019, he worked in the power generation sector, where for over 20 years he held the position of Head of NDT in PowerGen, E.ON and Uniper. Since 2020, he has been the Director of Technology for the UK Research Centre in Non-Destructive Evaluation (RCNDE).

Initially, Colin joined the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) in Bristol where he worked mainly on developing inspection techniques for the south western nuclear power stations, but also on solving transmission problems, image processing of radiographs and the development of software for analysing the inspection results from complex geometries. When the industry was privatised in 1989, he moved to his home town, Nottingham, to take up a position as an NDT Team Leader in the newly formed PowerGen. This period was very exciting as it was necessary to create a new commercially focused business for a wide geographical spread of power stations, introduce formal quality assurance procedures and equip staff with the equipment and skills to deliver an NDT service in a challenging environment. On the research front, automated systems were developed for inspecting steam turbines from the bore and a novel technique was validated for inspecting the protective coatings as used in flue gas desulphurisation plants. It was at this time that Colin joined the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT) and, in 1992, he became a member of the Technical Committee, which he has served for over 30 years.

In 1994, Colin was part of a working group that compiled a feature on the electricity supply industry that became the first issue of Insight and, in 1995, he helped to launch BINDT’s first website on the PowerGen server.

1995-1997 saw a move to California, USA, where Colin became a ‘loan-in’ employee with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). This role facilitated interactions between PowerGen and EPRI’s staff on a wide range of technologies, including combustion, structural integrity, electric vehicles and planning for the expected Y2K issues. He also helped to develop research programmes on a number of NDT methods aimed at the conventional power generation sector, for example electromagnetic acoustic transducers (EMATs) for boiler tube surveys, guided waves for the detection of corrosion in feed pipes and pulsed eddy current testing for inspecting through insulation, as well as the production of ‘NDE guidelines for fossil power plants’, a CD-ROM package that made use of hyperlinks to guide the user to relevant material.

On Colin’s return to PowerGen in the UK, he briefly joined the Structural Assessment function before becoming the Head of NDT in 1998, a post he held until 2019. He served on the BINDT Certification Advisory Board from 1998-2000 and was first elected to Council in 2001. Around this time, PowerGen was purchased by E.ON and the company was able to bid for more external work. NDT was particularly successful, providing outage services to the majority of the UK’s conventional power stations. 2001 and 2006 saw two major structural integrity problems affecting power plants that demanded improved NDT and a rapid response, which his team was able to deliver. The willingness of his staff to go above and beyond to address serious plant problems has been a major source of pride.

Renewable energy grew rapidly from 2005 onwards and with it a demand for NDT services. A number of specialist inspection techniques involving eddy currents, phased array ultrasonics and acoustic resonance were developed to solve concerns with both onshore and offshore wind generation systems. The Carbon Trust awarded Colin a prize for the development of a novel technique for inspecting wind turbine foundations in 2018.

Colin has served on the BINDT Croxson Committee, which is largely responsible for the Institute Awards, ensuring that they are inclusive of all aspects of BINDT’s membership. He served as a Vice President between 2015-2017 and has coordinated the activities of the various Branches, most notably through the COVID-19 pandemic, when online meetings became necessary. It is hoped that online meetings will continue to allow members to connect in the future. The Early Careers Branch was also launched at this time to support the needs of BINDT’s younger members, mainly due to the dynamism of Sam Cunningham.

Colin retired from the power generation industry at the end of 2019 and set up his own consultancy. One of his current activities is as part of the management team of RCNDE, where he helps to organise many of the events, bringing his industrial perspective to the mix of skills. In 2022, he helped produce the Strategic Vision of the industrial members for the future requirements of non-destructive evaluation (NDE), which sets out the research priorities for the next 20 years.

In 2021, Colin was awarded the Anne Birt Award for significant contribution to technology innovation, technology transfer or technology strategy in the field of NDT and won the John Grimwade Medal, for the best paper by an Institute member to appear in Insight, in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

Colin would like to take this opportunity to thank the numerous colleagues who have provided invaluable advice, support and friendship throughout his NDT career.