The Tony Lager Award
Award for BINDT members, Branch Award
Award information
About the award: The Tony Lager Award was introduced in 1996 in honour of the late Tony Lager, who served the Institute for many years on head office and Branch committees, including Council. Tony passed away in July 1996. The award is for meritorious service to an Institute Branch by an individual.
Purpose: For meritorious service to an Institute Branch by an individual.
Details of the award:
Framed certificate, plus £200.
Eligibility: Any individual Institute member.
Nomination arrangements: Branches to nominate. Contributions to the Branch and other Institute activities should be described.
Committee: MQ&E.
Winners
2022 winner: Fraser Hardie
The Tony Lager Award for 2022 is awarded to Fraser Hardie.Fraser Hardie’s career in non-destructive testing (NDT) commenced with a three-month training course in ultrasonic testing (UT) at the Scottish School of NDT, in Paisley, in 1982. After a short stint in the NDT department at Yarrow Shipbuilders, he moved across the River Clyde to join Babcock Research Centre in 1984, remaining there until he retired in March this year.
Fraser was a member of Mike Farley’s advanced NDT team, initially developing and qualifying automated UT systems for the naval pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and for the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB)’s new civil PWR, Sizewell B.
He went on to lead NDT teams, annually performing advanced UT at the Atomic Energy Authority (AEA)’s Prototype Fast Reactor at Dounreay, UK, until its closure in 1994.
He continued to develop and prove specialised techniques for the remainder of his career, immersing himself in the NDT industry through BINDT, IIW (a working group on austenitic weld UT), the Programme for the Assessment of NDT in Industry (PANI), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), HOIS and many other forums.
Fraser has attended BINDT Branch meetings, seminars and conferences regularly throughout his career and has been an enthusiastic member of the Scottish Branch committee for around 30 years, serving as Secretary and Chairman along the way. He continues to participate and support BINDT in retirement.
The Tony Lager Award was originally established as a prize for the Institute Branch achieving the highest number of new members in the year. This criterion was altered after 2000; until then the winners of the award were:
1995 North West
1996 Solent
1997 London and Home Counties
1998 West of England/West Midlands
1999 South Wales/West of England
2000 South Wales
Since then, the award has been for meritorious service to an Institute Branch by an individual. The past winners are:
2002 Mr A Raine
2003 Mr P Stephens
2004 Mr J Pouncy
2012 Mr D Breeze and Mr B Webb
2013 Mr B Murray, Mr D Betts and Mr M R Dawson
2014 Mr B Shannon
2015 Mr A Hunscott
2019 Mr B Naylor
2020 Dr Mike Farley BSc PhD FInstNDT FInstEnergy
2021 Pete Burrows MInstNDT
