Peter BANKS was presented with the CAPE-OPEN 2007 Award for being a champion of process simulation interoperability and his dedication to the CAPE-OPEN standards since 1995.

Peter created the starting point for CAPE-OPEN and has followed all the subsequent steps towards the industry-wide recognition of CAPE-OPEN.

Peter actively participated in the CAPE-OPEN project from January 1, 1997 till June 30, 1999. He led the work package dedicated to the development of the Unit Operation interface specification and served on the project steering committee along with representatives from IFP, BASF, ICI, Du Pont, Bayer and ELF.

Peter then went on with the Global CAPE-OPEN (GCO) project from July 1, 1999. His role was once more both technical and management. Peter was the leader of Work Package 4 (WP4) targeted at the integration of open simulation in the work process. He was key to the formation in March 2001 of the Interoperability Task Force (ITF) within WP4 and its subsequent success.

Peter continued his support of CAPE-OPEN through the GCO Support project, participating in the CO Tour days organized within this project. He brought to these his professional background of supervising modeling work at BP.

Following the formation of CO-LaN as a not-for-profit organization maintaining and developing the CAPE-OPEN standards, Peter served as the Secretary until the end of 2007, even after his retirement from BP. He was also instrumental in developing the CAPE-OPEN Logging and Testing Tool (COLTT), which remains still a key deliverable from CO-LaN as an aid to developers and end-users.

Peter passed away in March 2012 at the age of 73.