Ir Dr Vincent Ho

BS, MS, PhD, MBA, PE, CSP, RPE, CEng, FHKIE, CFIOSH, FIMechE, FCILT, POST

 

With a solid 40-year career in risk engineering, Professor Vincent Ho has effectively enhanced safety performance in the transportation, defence, nuclear, and energy sectors. His extensive experience in risk management, fire risk analysis, system safety, and safety assurance and governance has earned him international recognition. Professor Ho's leadership transcends borders, having served as the first international president of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), the world's largest professional membership organisation for health and safety practitioners, setting a precedent as the first Chinese leader of this prestigious organisation. His influence extends to setting industry benchmarks; he is the founding chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Risk Management and Safety and has chaired multiple internationally renowned risk management and safety organisations. Professor Ho is a Former President of the International Association of Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management and the Society for Risk Analysis-Southern California, and a former Chair of the Safety Specialist Committee, the Mechanical, Marine, Naval-Architecture, and Chemical Division and the Nuclear Division of The Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, the Construction Industry Safety & Health Committee of OSHC-HK, and the IOSH, Hong Kong Branch.

In 2024, Professor Ho was elected as the Chair of the Northeast Asia Region of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), the world's largest mechanical engineering professional organisation, which provides professional development and networking opportunities, and sets industry standards in mechanical engineering. In the same year, he was also elected as the Secretary-General-Elect of the Asia-Pacific Occupational Safety and Health Organization (APOSHO), a non-profit organisation promoting occupational safety and health in the Asia-Pacific region by bringing together members from various countries. Additionally, Professor Ho was elected as the Chair of the Nuclear Division of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, making him a prominent figure in three distinct fields.

Professor Ho received the Derek Smyth Safety Leadership Award in 2024 and the Global Safety Influencer Award in 2021, recognising his transformative impact in the field of safety and his significant advancements in promoting safety. Prof. Ho received his BS, MS, PhD, and MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he conducted research in probabilistic fire risk assessment, compartment fire growth, magnetohydrodynamic power generation, fire growth in a microgravity environment, space travel, inherently safe nuclear fast reactors, man-machine interface, artificial intelligence, and dynamic human action analysis. He volunteered as a Reserve Police Officer at the City of Pasadena in Los Angeles, participating in patrol and undercover operations, and he received distinguished awards from Pasadena and the County of Los Angeles.

Prof. Vincent Ho has served on a wide spectrum of government boards and committees, such as the Independent Police Complaints Council, Inland Revenue Board of Review, Daya Bay Contingency Plan Review Panel, and various appeal and disciplinary boards related to safety ordinances. After retiring from his executive manager position in the private sector, Professor Ho's passion for knowledge transfer remained strong. He founded the Safety Design Research Center at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the world's first research center dedicated to studying and applying safety design concepts to control safety risks in the construction industry. Prof. Ho also lectures on engineering and risk management subjects at several global top 100 universities, including: