Alfred Nobel has been named the 2020 Society of Explosives Engineers Education (SEE) Foundation Explosives Industry Hall of Fame inductee for his contributions to improving commercial explosives safety and controllability.

The Swedish businessman was an expert in many areas and is best known for his inventions in the field of explosives.

“He was deeply committed to developing safer explosives after an explosives accident killed his younger brother,” the International Society of Explosives Engineers said.

Nobel invented dynamite, gelignite and ballistite. Each product was a safety improvement over existing explosives. In all, Nobel was awarded 355 patents throughout his lifetime including one for a detonator and another for a safer blasting cap he developed. He was also the founder of Dyno Nobel, a global leader in the commercial explosives industry.

Nobel is just the third Explosives Industry Hall of Fame inductee. David E Siskind, PhD, who has more than 25 years of blasting and vibration research, and John D Loizeaux, a demolition expert who pioneered the use of the strategic and precise placement of explosives to cause buildings to fall where they stood, were the previous inductees.

Nobel’s induction was announced October 1, 2019, by the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE), a professional association established to advance the science and art of explosives engineering.

The Explosives Industry Hall of Fame was created to honour outstanding contributions in technology and innovation while impacting the commercial explosives industry.