Challenges for Health and Safety in Higher Education and Research Organisations

Dr Olga Kuzmina is a qualified Health and Safety specialist, with more than 10 years' experience of working in manufacturing, research and academic environments. She routinely advises on handling, storage and disposal of hazardous chemicals, including corrosives, oxidisers, carcinogens, toxic substances, pyrophoric and otherwise hazardous materials. She created organisational policies on waste routes, safe solvent purification, safe chemical storage and disposal. She developed and delivered health and safety training. Dr Kuzmina is highly skilled in chemistry and engineering and fluent in English, Russian and Polish. She holds project management, teaching and professional qualifications including: PRINCE2, FHEA, CChem, CSci and CEnv. She was a winner of the 40under40 outstanding Health and Safety professionals award in 2018. Dr Kuzmina has 15 scientific publications and is a Committee Member of the IOSH Environment and Waste Management Group. She has also contributed to a book for the RSC on Polymerized Ionic Liquids.


Stefan Hoyle (MSc, CMIOSH) is the Head of Health and Safety with over 15 years of experience as a health and safety practitioner in a research environment. Stef started his career as a Medical Microbiology researcher then moved to a safety role to support frontline research. Stef is a Member of Expert Biosafety Group at Polo d'Innovazione di Genomica Genetica e Biologia (Polo GGB) and a committee member of the UK University Chemical Safety Forum. Stef's experience covers biological, chemical and laser safety, offsite working, computer health, outreach and events safety. Last year Stef's team received the Imperial College Provost Excellence award.