Rolf K. Eckhoff

Rolf K. Eckhoff

Professor emeritus, University of Bergen

Department of physics and technology

Allegaten 55, NO-5007 Bergen, Norway

Tel: +47 5558 2858, Fax: +47 5558 9440, E-mail: rolf.eckhoff@ift.uib.no

http://folk.uib.no/nfyre/

Academic degrees:

Master of Science (Chemical engineering), University of Trondheim, 1961

Master of Philosophy (Dust explosions), University of London, 1971

Doctor Technicae (Dust explosions), University of Trondheim, 1976

Doctor of Science (Eng.) (Gas and dust explosions, Powder technol.) Higher doctorate, University of London, 1992

Honours:

Permanently invited guest, WPMPS (powder mech.), Europ. Feder. Chem. Engineering from 1985

Concurrent professor of North Eastern University, Shenyang, P.R. China, from 1990

Member of the Committee of Honour of EuropEx, Belgium, from 1991

Recipient of the W. Cybulski medal (Polish Academy of Science), 1992

Member of the Norwegian Academy of Technical Sciences, 2008

Career:

Eckhoff was appointed at Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Bergen, Norway, in 1962, where he established powder technology (1963), accidental dust explosions (1968), and accidental gas explosions (1976) as new research areas. From 1973 to 1988 Eckhoff was CMI's chief scientist in powder technology, and dust and gas explosions. From 1988 to 1996 he was senior scientific adviser to CMI/CMR/GexCon He was appointed part-time professor at University of Bergen in Process Safety Technology in 1992 and full-time professor in 1996. He has been central in the building up of the general study programme process technology, as well as his own special sub programme in process safety technology. In 2008 he became professor emeritus at UoB in Process Safety Technology, but he still teaches and supervises master and doctorate students, and give external lectures and courses..

Eckhoff has advised industry in many countries on powder technology and explosion protection, and lectured on courses, conferences and seminars in a number of countries in Europe, and in USA, Canada, Israel, Bahrain, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, China, Australia and Brazil. He has been an expert witness in connection with major explosion disasters in USA. In 2005 he participated, as the only invited expert from outside USA, in the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) public hearing in Washington DC, on how to deal with the increasing number of serious dust explosion accidents in US industries.

Eckhoff is a member of the editorial board of "Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries", and of several Norwegian and international working groups on process-safety-related topics related to the Internat. Electrotech. Comm. (IEC) and the European CEN/CENELEC.

Books:

R. K. Eckhoff (Guest Editor): Safety on offshore process installations: North Sea. Special issue (Vol. 7, No. 4, July 1994) of Journ. Loss Prev. Process Ind., Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK

R. K. Eckhoff: Electrical equipment for hazardous areas (explosive atmospheres). Tapir Forlag, Trondheim, Norway (1996), 160 pages. ISBN 82-519-1211-3 (In Norwegian)

R. K. Eckhoff: Dust explosions in the process industries 3rd edition, 720 pages, Gulf Professional Publishing/Elsevier, Boston (2003) ISBN 0-7506-7602-7. (First and second editions published by Butterworth-Heinemann, UK in 1991 and 1997)

R.K. Eckhoff: Explosion hazards in the process industries. 1st edition, 440 pages, Gulf Publishing Company, Houston (2005) ISBN 0-9765113-4-7. Corrected reprint of 1st edition in (2008)

Papers in journals:

More than 100 papers in international and national technical/scientific journals and conference proceedings.