Practitioner Award

Award criteria

 
Purpose: The purpose of this award is to recognise outstanding achievement in the learning, sharing or execution of NDT/CM/SHM practice.
 
Details of the award: £250 cash, a voucher to the value of £300 towards training at an Approved Training Organisation (ATO)/Authorised Qualifying Body (AQB) and an invitation to the NDT Annual Conference Dinner with one night's accommodation. This financial contribution to the value of £300 is in support of any CPD initiative/aspiration, of the recipient’s choice, that has been endorsed by the Practitioner Committee and must be used within two years of presentation.

Free Institute membership is offered to all award winners who are not currently members, at the appropriate grade.

Eligibility: Any member or non-member of BINDT showing outstanding performance in NDT/CM/SHM duties and demonstrating qualities such as a consistently high standard of performance in a specific job (service, loyalty, ethics, client satisfaction), potential to develop the depth or breadth of NDT/CM/SHM competence, acting as a mentor, coach or leader of junior or less experienced colleagues or associates and/or contribution to a specific project that yielded technical and/or financial benefits for the employer or organisation.

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: Annual award.
 
Nomination arrangements: Nominations may be made by any manager, supervisor, team leader or mentor who is familiar with the nominated person and has witnessed their engagement in the execution of NDT/CM/SHM and observed commendable behaviour, effort or aptitude and can attest to having done so.

The Practitioner Committee will select the most suitable applicant and forward its nomination to the Croxson Committee for submission to Council for approval.

Awarding arrangements: Presentation from any member of the Practitioner Committee at the most mutually convenient location. Photographic record and subsequent publication in NDT News and Insight.
 
Committee: Practitioner Committee.

Winners

The Practitioner Award for 2024 is awarded to David Nelson.

When David left college he didn’t know what he wanted to do, but then a close friend told him about the apprenticeship scheme at OIS, now Oceaneering. He considers it the best decision he has ever made. In the early 2000s, he worked for OIS/Oceaneering for about ten years before eventually thinking that the contracting lifestyle might be for him, however it wasn’t.

David then spent a few years in Holland with RTD and Vincotte, before going further afield and working in the USA, northern Norway and Denmark, as well as a long period in the Middle East and Asia. He then joined Applus in Australia, working on major liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects under Jim Knowles, one of the current Vice Presidents of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing (BINDT).

When he returned from Australia, David was recruited to work at Rolls-Royce but it was a short-lived tenure.

He was then contacted by Jim Knowles, who had also returned from his position in Australia, and he invited David to rejoin his advanced inspection department here in the UK. David believes that since this moment he has grown massively as both a technician and a person and views the team he works with as his extended family.

Recently, David has taken over as the Technical Manager and Advanced Inspection Manager for the company, a role that two of his mentors held and whose boots he is still working out how to fill. He feels very privileged to be in the same position that they both previously held.

David believes he has been lucky enough over the past 20 years or so to be mentored by people who he regards as the best of the best. This includes Ben Lumley, Jim Knowles, Alan Hipkiss, Mark Hill and Trevor Tennant. He feels that if you are lucky enough to learn from people like this, you are going in the right direction (or will eventually, as per his own experience).

David feels honoured and extremely humbled to receive this award and would like to thank those at BINDT for the selection.