The International Ergonomics and Human Factors Association (IEA) mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Klaus Zink who passed away on Thursday 26 September 2024. Prof. Zink spent two separate terms in the IEA’s Executive Committee including as Chair of the Policy and Development Standing Committee (2000-2003) and Vice-President Treasurer (2009-2012). In addition, he was Co-Chair on the IEA’s Future of Work Task Force (2018-2021) and started and chaired the IEA’s Human Factors and Sustainable Development Technical Committee (2009-2015). Prof. Zink also spent many years as the German-speaking ergonomics society representative on the IEA Council. He will be remembered for his long, passionate interest in improving the wellbeing of workers who were neglected by mainstream HFE, including in developing countries. His many awards included being elected an IEA Fellow, receiving the IEA Development Award and the IEA President’s Award, the HFES Distinguished International Colleague Award, and an Order of Merit Award from the Federal Republic of Germany for the “design of human and sustainable work”. We send our condolences to Prof. Zink’s family, friends and colleagues at the Institute for Technology and Work (which he founded and where worked for many years).
If anyone would like to write a testimonial to Prof. Zink, we will include these in a forthcoming IEA NewsBriefs.
Please read the full tribute by his colleagues at the Institute for Technology and Work (ITA) here: https://iea.cc/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Klaus-Zink-obituary.pdf
