Dr Martin Pitt

MPhil, PhD, CChem, CEng, FIChemE, FRSC

Examinations Officer
2nd Year Tutor
IChemE Liaison Officer

Email:

Tel: +44 (0)114 222 7513
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7501

Chemical and Biological Engineering
The University of Sheffield
Sir Robert Hadfield Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD

Research Interests

• Education
• Safety
• Particle Technolog

Biography

After working in industrial R&D, as a Chemical Plant Manager and as a Project Engineer, I went back to university as a mature student, completing a PhD at Loughborough, and becoming a lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the University of Leeds in 1985. During this period I made a lecture tour of India for the British Council, teaching process instrumentation and control.

I moved to Sheffield as Senior Lecturer in 1995 and was made Co-ordinator of Design Teaching in 2001. I am the Department´s Examinations Officer, and was in the past Admissions Tutor.

I have a long-standing interest in chemical and chemical engineering safety, and am the assistant editor for Bretherick´s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards (since 1990). I also give some lectures on industrial short courses and MSc modules. I was for many years the only academic on the Committee of the Safety and Loss Prevention Subject Group of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), running the website and organizing meetings, including those for other academics on teaching safety. I am on the organizing committee of the successful “Hazards” series of conferences.

I treated the job of lecturer as I would any chemical engineering project by learning the theory behind it and current practical methods of operation. As a result I have been very much involved nationally and internationally in promoting good practice in engineering education and recently received an ExxonMobil Excellence in Teaching Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering.

I am currently the Chairman of the Working Party on Education of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering and Secretary of the Royal Society of Chemistry Tertiary Education Group. I have been on the Management Committee of the Engineering Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy from its beginnings in 2000 to the present day. I was Chairman of the IChemE Education Subject Group, organising numerous meetings to share good practice.

I act as an accreditor of chemical engineering degrees in other universities.

I am now mainly involved with teaching, but contribute to some research in safety and other areas.

Key papers

• Pitt, M. J., & Preece, P. E., (1990) Instrumentation and Automation in Process Control (Ellis Horwood Series in Chemical Engineering) ISBN 0-13-465949-X
• Urben, P. G., & Pitt, M. J. (2006) Bretherick’s Handbook of Reactive Chemical Hazards 7th ed. Academic Press (Oxford)
• Pitt, M. J. (2006) “A vapour hazard index for use with COSHH and DSEAR” pp 95-107 in Hazards XIX – Process Safety and Environmental Protection IChemE (Rugby)
• Bernatik, A., Senovsky, P., Pitt, M. (2011) , Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries 24 (1) 19-24 “LNG as a potential alternative fuel – safety and security of storage facilities”
• Addo-Yobo, F. O., Pitt, M. J., & Obiri, H. A., (2011) AIChE Journal 57 (8) 2007-24 “ The effects of particle size on the mechanisms of atomization of suspensions using hydraulic spray nozzles”

Teaching

• CPE101 Chemical Engineering Design
• CPE2012 Chemical Engineering Design
• CPE210 Applied Chemical Engineering
• CPE3002 Chemical Engineering Design
• CPE306 Engineering Management & Economics
• CPE321 Design Project
• CPE421 Design Project
• CPE6390 Process Safety & Loss Prevention Project

Links

Publications and presentations

European Federation of Chemical Engineering: Working Party on Education