The IEA/Liberty Mutual Medal was instituted in 1998 and consists of a plaque (certificate), medal, and monetary award ($10,000US). This medal recognizes outstanding original research leading to the reduction or mitigation of work-related injuries and/or to the advancement of theory, understanding, and development of occupational safety research.
The IEA/Liberty Mutual Medal winners are selected by an international review committee established by the IEA. All recipients of the IEA/Liberty Mutual Medal are invited and expected to present their research at the next IEA Triennial Congress, using part of the monetary award for travel to the Congress.
At the IEA2018 Congress in Florence, Italy, the 2016, 2017, and 2018 medals were awarded to the recipients for those years. Pictured above (left to right) is Antonio Sacchi, General Manager – Italy Liberty Global Group; Pieter Coenen,2016 recipient; Stephen S. Bao, 2017 recipient; Patrick G. Dempsey, 2018 recipient; Klaus J. Zink, chair of the IEA/Liberty Mutual Award Committee; and Eric Min-yang Wang, IEA Awards Committee chair.
The 2018 IEA Liberty Mutual Award was presented to Patrick G. Dempsey (USA), Jonisha Pollard, William L. Porter, Alan Mayton, John R. Heberger, Sean Gallagher, Leanna Reardon, & Colin G. Drury for “Development of ergonomics audits for bagging, haul truck and maintenance and repair operations in mining.”
The 2017 IEA Liberty Mutual Award was presented to Stephen S. Bao (USA), Jay M. Kapellusch, Andrew S. Merryweather, Mathew S. Thiese, Arun Garg, Kurt T. Hegmann, and Barbara A. Silverstein for their paper, “Relationships between job organizational factors, biomechanical and psychosocial exposures.”
The following pictures show past Liberty Mutual Award ceremonies.
The 2016 IEA Liberty Mutual Award ceremony
n 2016, the IEA/Liberty Mutual Medal was presented to Pieter Coenen, Idsart Kingma, Cécile R.L. Boot, Paulien M. Bongers, & Jaap H. van Dieën in conjunction with the Human FactorsNL Congress, November 24-25, 2016 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. Pictured are Ernst Koningsveld, IEA Historian, and Pieter Coenen accepting on behalf of the research group.
The 2015 IEA Liberty Mutual Award ceremony
Sarah Sharples accepted the Liberty Mutual medal on behalf of a group of UK researchers – Bob Muffett, John R. Wilson, Theresa Clarke, Anthony Coplestone, Emma Lowe , John Robinson, and Stuart Smith
The 2014 Liberty Mutual Award ceremony
The 2014 Liberty Mutual medal was presented to Dr. Priyadarshini R. Pennathur and Dr. Ayse P. Gurses.
The 2013 Liberty Mutual Award ceremony
The 2013 Liberty Mutual medal was presented to Sean Gallagher.
The 2012 Liberty Mutual Award ceremony
On October 25th, 2012, the Liberty Mutual medal was presented to Berry den Brinker at the biannual conference of the Dutch Ergonomics Society in Amersfoort.
Applications are due May 31 every year.