Rama Krushna Chary, senior environment engineer for the drilling and technology directorate at Kuwait Oil Company and 10-year member of the American Society of Safety Professionals, is ASSP’s 2019 Edgar Monsanto Queeny Safety Professional of the Year. He has taken innovative steps to advance the safety and health profession while enhancing ASSP’s membership abroad.

Chary’s wide-ranging areas of professional responsibility include environmental management systems, environmentally friendly drilling operations, chemical management, air emissions compliance, global sustainability, waste management and recycling, and energy management systems. He is an expert at implementing workplace safety standards and has collected numerous awards and certificates for his accomplishments in occupational safety and health.

“He has excellent technical skills involving environmental management systems, environmental assessment studies and management of air quality studies,” said ASSP Region 9 Vice President Ashok Garlapati, CSP, CFIOSH, QEP. “He is a self-motivated and highly committed team player with strong conceptual skills.”

Chary holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the National Institutes of Technology and a Master of Business Administration in oil and gas from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, both in India. His safety career spans more than 17 years in the oil and gas, refinery, consultancy and chemical sectors.

Chary is a member of ASSP’s Kuwait Chapter and served as 2016-17 chapter president. For the past eight years, he has served on the Advisory Committee of ASSP’s Environmental Practice Specialty.

“He has conducted outstanding technical presentations and a webinar for our group of safety professionals, and his high level of expertise is apparent,” said Herbert Bell, CSP, CHMM, CIHC, QISP, administrator of ASSP’s Environmental Practice Specialty.

Chary will be honored during ASSP’s Safety 2019 Professional Development Conference & Exposition, held June 9-12 in New Orleans. The global event will feature more than 5,000 safety professionals from 40 countries learning about a wide range of best practices, industry trends and the latest product innovations in the occupational safety and health field.

Each year, ASSP honors an occupational safety and health professional who demonstrates outstanding achievement in the safety field while making significant contributions to advancing the profession. The award is named after Edgar Monsanto Queeny, president of the Monsanto Company on April 16, 1947, when a freighter explosion destroyed the company’s Texas City plant. The incident killed 512 people, including 145 Monsanto employees, and led to measures that forever enhanced safety at the company through Queeny’s leadership.