Martin Tasker - an appreciation

Martin Tasker who died last year was a regular contributor to dispersion modelling. Many of us saw him last at the Sofia October 2002 conference on Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling for Regulatory Purposes.

Martin was always an engineer, which may explain his interest in trains. He applied his considerable talent to minimising the environmental effects of industrial processes.

From school in Coventry, Martin won an open scholarship to Christ Church College, Oxford, obtaining a first in his engineering science degree and rapdily completing a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford, on the subject of heat transfer in the dispersion of cold dense gases. From university it was natural that he should go into industry, as a process safety engineer with ICI in the north east of England. Following its re-organisation he worked for a division of ICI, which became Eutech in Warrington. This was finally taken over by ABB to become ABB Eutech. This transition meant that his work on gas dispersion and air pollution was applied beyond the borders of a single company.

Martin participated in the activities of the atmospheric dispersion and air pollution community. He was a member of EURASAP, the European Association for the Science of Air Pollution. He regularly attended the National Society for Clean Air’s Dispersion Modellers User Group, which meets twice a year. He contributed to earlier conferences in the Harmonisation within Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling series. At these meetings Martin was anxious to remind the researchers that they were there to help solve practical problems. He would point out the difficulties that industrial processes faced in interpreting and applying dispersion modelling techniques in a consistent and open way.

It is a loss to dispersion modelling that Martin should die at 40, depriving the subject of many more years of good humoured and lively debate. He suffered from a very rare infection which led to heart failure, while he was in hospital for the treatment of a blood clot.

Martin’s view would be that our work is primarily to improve the condition of the atmosphere, and not just to indulge in lengthy discussions. As an engineer he was always interested in practical outcomes.

   Prof. Bernard Fisher, UK

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