Sir Frederick Edward Warner FRS,

FREng Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng) is an award and fellowship for engineers who are recognised by the Royal Academy of Engineering as being the best and brightest engineers, inventors and technologists in the UK and from aroun ...

(31 March 1910 – 3 July 2010) was a British chemical engineer. He was knighted in 1968, FRS 1976, Leverhulme Medal 1978,

Buchanan Medal The Buchanan Medal is awarded by the Royal Society "in recognition of distinguished contribution to the medical sciences generally". The award was created in 1897 from a fund to the memory of London physician Sir George Buchanan (1831–1895). I ...

1982. He was a founding Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

. Warner also received an

Honorary Doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad ho ...

from

Heriot-Watt University Heriot-Watt University ( gd, Oilthigh Heriot-Watt) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1821 as the School of Arts of Edinburgh, the world's first mechanics' institute, and subsequently granted uni ...

in 1978. In 1986, Warner assembled a group of experts, all aged over 65, to visit the stricken Chernobyl reactor. On returning to Britain he proposed the formation of a permanent task force made up of older scientists who would be on hand to enter contaminated areas after serious nuclear accidents to make initial damage assessments. As a result, Volunteers for Ionising Radiation (VIR) was formed and incorporated into the emergency provisions of the Order of St John. Warner died on 3 July 2010 at the age of 100.

Legacy

Warner's chemical engineering legacy is remembered through the Sir Frederick Warner prize, a biennial award presented by IChemE (the Institution of Chemical Engineers) to recognise an individual in the early stages of their career that has shown exceptional promise in the field of sustainable chemical process technology, nuclear technology or in making chemical engineering more accessible to a wider scientific community.

References

Papers and Correspondence of Sir Frederick WarnerNotice of Sir Frederick Warner's 98th birthdayObituary in ''The Guardian''Notice of the Sir Frederick Warner prize
British chemical engineers 1910 births 2010 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Knights Bachelor Alumni of University College London British centenarians Men centenarians {{UK-engineer-stub