BCSP Blog

2026 Award of Excellence Recipient

Written by Board of Certified Safety Professionals | Apr 27, 2026 8:42:19 PM
 

BCSP presents its Awards of Excellence annually to the best of the best credential holders among its various certification categories. The 2026 award recognized a recipient in the CSP category.

CSP Award of Excellence

Georgi Popov, Ph.D., CSP, QEP, SMP, ARM, CMC, FASSP, FAIHA

Dr. Georgi Popov is a highly decorated safety professional and educator. A professor in the Occupational Risk and Safety Sciences Department at the University of Central Missouri, he is also the co-author of three books on risk assessment and management. 

In 2025 alone, Dr. Popov was presented with the Edward J. Baier Technical Achievement Award from AIHA, the Thomas F. Bresnahan Standards Medal from ASSP, and the Safety Management Professional Award of Excellence from BCSP. 

He is a previous recipient of ASSP’s Heart of America Chapter and Region 5 Safety Professional of the Year awards and the organization’s Outstanding Safety Educator Award. He is also a three-time recipient of the AIHA President’s Award. 

Dr. Popov is a member of ASSP’s Risk Management/Insurance Practice Specialty, chair or vice chair of multiple ANSI/ASSP standards committees, and Lead Auditor for the ISO 45001 and 14001 standards. He also holds ASSP professional certificates in Global Safety Management, Risk Assessment, and Executive Program in Safety Management. 

He earned a Ph.D. from the National Scientific Board and a master’s in Nuclear Physics from Defense University in Bulgaria, and he graduated from the United States Army Command and General Staff College. 

Dr. Popov has served as Editor-in-Chief of the SHIFT Journal, BCSP’s research publication, since 2022.