The Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS) — an AIChE technical community and a global organization leading the safe advancement of hydrogen as the next-generation fuel — has announced the inaugural recipients of prizes that spotlight important contributions to safety practices within the hydrogen industry.
The Robert Zalosh Hydrogen Safety Excellence Awards are named in honor of a pioneer in hydrogen and fuel cell safety, and recognize excellence in three categories of achievement: individual, project team, and organization. The inaugural prizes were presented on April 8 at the 2025 AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety in Dallas, Texas.
The individual Zalosh Hydrogen Safety Excellence Award recognizes people who have made major contributions to hydrogen safety during their careers. Honored with the inaugural prize was Derek Miller, Global Process Safety Director at Air Products, an industrial gases company that serves energy, environmental, and other markets worldwide. Miller’s leadership has driven advancements in hydrogen safety through research, industry collaborations, safety education, and mentorship. His research has enhanced industry’s understanding of the safe use of hydrogen, and his innovative work in consequence modeling for hydrogen jet fires, explosions, and overpressure in vessels has set industry standards for safety methodologies and practices.
The inaugural project team prize was awarded to the San Bernardino County (California) Transit Authority’s Zero-Emission Multiple Unit (ZEMU), for a project that revolutionized rail transportation in the County with the U.S.’s first hybrid hydrogen fuel cell (HFC)-battery train. The project team conducted comprehensive hazard assessments and testing to ensure that the HFC-battery train met Federal Railroad Administration safety standards. The team also developed hydrogen fueling infrastructure, including layout design and safety hazard assessments, ensuring safe refueling operations. The ZEMU project established new safety and regulatory standards for hydrogen rail transportation in the U.S., paving the way for wider deployment of hydrogen-powered trains and offering a model for future clean transportation.
The organizational Zalosh Hydrogen Safety Excellence Award recognizes academic institutions, companies, or government entities that have demonstrated a commitment to hydrogen safety. The inaugural honor was awarded to BakerRisk, a global leader in technical risk management, dedicated to enhancing safety culture across industries. With expertise spanning oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, and low-carbon energy, BakerRisk has conducted large-scale hydrogen testing, including critical research on explosion dynamics, flammable dispersion, and material compatibility. The company’s test programs — involving full-scale vented deflagration studies, vapor cloud explosion tests, and ignition testing of high-flow hydrogen releases — have helped to shape the industry's understanding of hydrogen hazards. BakerRisk’s testing efforts have also supported safer facility designs and provided key data for risk assessments.
The Zalosh Hydrogen Safety Excellence Awards commemorate the lasting impact on hydrogen and fuel cell safety made by Robert Zalosh (1944–2023), who was Professor Emeritus at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Zalosh was also an incident investigator for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and a member of the Hydrogen Safety Panel that assisted the U.S. Department of Energy and the Center for Hydrogen Safety. Within AIChE’s Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), he contributed extensively to the annual Loss Prevention Symposium, and he was the principal author of the first edition of the CCPS book “Guidelines for Safe Handling of Powders and Bulk Solids.”
Nominations for the 2026 Zalosh Hydrogen Safety Excellence Awards are due on October 31, 2025. To file an online nomination for an individual, project team, or organization, visit the CHS website at www.aiche/org/CHS. Additional information is available at CHSawards@aiche.org.