An important function of the International Ergonomics Association is to award formal recognition to members of Federated Societies who have made outstanding contributions to the field of ergonomics on an international level. All awards are presented during the IEA Triennial Congress. The immediate Past President of IEA shall serve as Chair of the Awards Committee.

IEA offers some awards yearly and others are awarded triennially. This page specifies the IEA Triennial Awards (See also Annual Awards).

The IEA Awards Committee is receiving nominations for eight IEA Triennial Awards. The deadline for nominations is 15th January, 2024. NB! DEADLINE EXTENDED till 30th January 2024.

Click on the award for application information.

 

  • The IEA President’s Award

The IEA President’s Award is presented triennially to persons who have made outstanding contributions to ergonomics or the furthering of ergonomics, and whose contribution does not clearly fall into one of the other award categories. Persons qualifying for this award do not necessarily have to be ergonomists. Nominations may come from the IEA Council or the IEA Executive Committee. Final approval of this award rests with the IEA President.

 

2024 IEA Triennial Award recipients

 
Winners of the first four awards are selected by the IEA Awards Committee based upon nominations from federated societies. The Human Factors and Ergonomics Prize is selected by an international committee of experts in ergonomics and safety research. The John Wilson/Elsevier Award Committee consists of international experts, one of whom is the editor-in-chief or co-editor in chief of Applied Ergonomics.  Winners of the K.U. Smith Student Award are selected by the Student Awards Committee. The IEA Awards Committee + a representative from the USA Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation make the selection for the Thomas R. Waters MSD Memorial Scholarship Award.
 

Thomas R. Waters MSD Memorial Scholarship Award

 
Thomas R. Waters was a scientist at NIOSH and was the mastermind behind the NIOSH Revised Equation for the Design and Evaluation of Manual Lifting Tasks. This contribution has been adopted by governments and industries all around the world and its applications have prevented countless numbers of back injuries and human suffering over the years. The Thomas R. Waters MSD Memorial Scholarship Award is a realization of the Waters family’s wish to enable students and recent graduates to continue the research to help understand and control MSDs in the workplace. The monetary award is $3000.

The 2024 awardee is Rahul Narasimhan Raghuraman, Clemson University, USA.

 

Past IEA Triennial Award Recipients

The IEA Distinguished Service Award

The IEA Distinguished Service Award is presented triennially to individuals for outstanding contributions to the promotion, development, and advancement of the IEA.
The 2018 IEA Distinguished Service Award was presented to Roger A. Haslam.

Roger A. Haslam (right) accepted the 2018 Distinguished Service award from President Yushi Fujita. 

The IEA Outstanding Educators Award

The IEA Triennial Outstanding Educators Award is presented triennially to persons in recognition of outstanding contributions in the area of ergonomics education for having:

  • Developed ergonomics education programs
  • Produced new methodology and/or materials for teaching ergonomics
  • Graduated persons who have become outstanding ergonomists.

The 2018 Outstanding Educators Award was presented to Peter A. Hancock.

Peter A. Hancock (right) accepted the 2018 Outstanding Educator Award from President Yushi Fujita

The IEA President’s Award

The IEA President’s Award is presented triennially to persons who have made outstanding contributions to ergonomics or the furthering of ergonomics, and whose contribution does not clearly fall into one of the other award categories. Persons qualifying for this award do not necessarily have to be ergonomists. Nominations may come from the IEA Council or the IEA Executive Committee. Final approval of this award rests with the IEA President.

The 2018 IEA President’s Award was presented to Klaus J. Zink.

Klaus J. Zink (right) accepted the award from President Yushi Fujita. 

The IEA Award for Promotion of Ergonomics in Industrially Developing Countries

The IEA Award for Promotion of Ergonomics in Industrially Developing Countries (originally The IEA Ergonomics of Technology Transfer Award) is given triennially to a person(s) who has made significant and outstanding contributions to the Development of Infrastructure of Ergonomics in an industrially developing country. This may be manifested through development of teaching/training programs, implementation of ergonomics design in industry, development of R&D programs, organization of ergonomics professionals, and extensive collaboration with international bodies such as United Nations.

The 2018 IEA Promotion of Ergonomics in Industrially Developing Countries was presented to Gaur Ray.

Gaur Ray (right) accepted the award from President Yushi Fujita. 

The IEA Ergonomics Development Award

The IEA Ergonomics Development Award is presented triennially to persons who have had an international impact on ergonomics in terms of making a contribution or development which:

  • Significantly advances the state of the art of existing ergonomics sub-specialty
  • Opens up a new area of ergonomics research and/or application.

In 2018, the IEA Ergonomics Development Award was not presented

The K.U. Smith Student Award

Yaar Harari (center) accepted the KU Smith Student Award from Pascale Carayon and Eric Min-yang Wang 

Husam Muslim accepted the KU Smith Student award. (L-R – Thomas J. Smith, Pascale Carayon, Husam Muslim, and Eric Min-Yang Wang) 

Esdras Paravizo (center) accepted the award from Pascale Carayon (right) and Eric Min-yang Wang (left) 

Adam Schwartz (center) accepted the KU Smith Student Award from Pascale Carayon (left) and Eric Min-yang Wang (right) 

The IEA K.U. Smith Student Award was launched in 1997 through an agreement with the St. Paul Foundation, which provides overall management of the Fund. The award provides a tangible means by which the IEA can encourage the development of the discipline, foster scholarship and recognize worthy achievements. The purpose of the award is to honor a deserving student responsible for an application of or contribution to ergonomics.

The award consists of a cash amount of US $3,000. Any student enrolled in an accredited post-secondary institution (college, university, technical or vocational school) is eligible to apply for the award. All areas of ergonomics are eligible for consideration. Examples of applicable projects include an applied ergonomics project, a human performance study or analysis, a design project or product, a research project undertaken in the laboratory or field, or a theoretical/conceptual contribution to ergonomics. This study endeavor should be documented in a paper submitted to the IEA Congress.

The 2018 IEA KU Smith Student Award was presented to Yaar Harari, Husam Muslim, Esdras Paravizo, and Adam Schwartz

The IEA/Elsevier John Wilson Award

This award is presented in honor of John Wilson (1951-2013), Professor of Human Factors at the University of Nottingham, where he was Director of the Institute of Occupational Ergonomics until his departure and Head of the Human Factors Group (until 2006). The IEA/Elsevier John Wilson Award recognizes major contributions in the field of applied ergonomics. As editor of the journal, Professor Wilson demonstrated tremendous leadership and transformed the journal into one of the best human factors and ergonomics journals. The award includes a $5000 monetary prize donated by Elsevier.

The 2018 IEA/Elsevier John Wilson Award was presented to Pascale Carayon.

Pascale Carayon receives the IEA/Elsevier John Wilson award from Committee Chair Pierre Falzon 

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Prize

This award is presented to a group, institution or organization that has made significant contributions to research and development, and/or application of knowledge generally in the field of human factors and ergonomics.

The 2018 IEA Human Factors and Ergonomics Prize was presented to the Ohara Memorial Institute for Science of Labour.

Kazutaka Kogi (right) accepted the IEA Human Factors and Ergonomics Prize from President Yushi Fujita (left) on behalf of the Ohrara Memorial Institute for Science of Labour.