James Reason

[1] He wrote books on human error,[2] including such aspects as absent-mindedness, aviation human factors, maintenance errors, and risk management for organizational accidents.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2003 New Year Honours "for services to Reducing the Risk in Healthcare.

"[4] In 2011 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Safety and Reliability Society.

[5] Among his many contributions is the introduction of the Swiss cheese model, a conceptual framework for the description of accidents based on the notion that accidents will happen only if multiple barriers fail, thus creating a path from an initiating cause all the way to the ultimate, unwanted consequences, such as harm to people, assets, the environment, etc.

[2] Reason also described the first fully developed theory of a just culture in his 1997 book, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents.