News & Updates

Mohd Nasrull Abdol Rahman was the winner of the 2012 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award.  Mr. Abdol Rahman, a PhD student at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), is the third recipient of the Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award.  The award was presented to Mr. Abdol Rahman by Dr. Halimahtun Khalid, President of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society – Malaysia, at the NIOSH Ergonomics Seminar, November 27-28, 2012 in Dewan Sri Johor, Malaysia. The award included an engraved, acrylic award plus a $500 check.

Radin Zaid Radin Umar is the winner of the 2011 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award. Mr. Radin Umar, a student at Ohio State University, is the second recipient of the Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award. The award was presented to Mr. Radin Umar by Dieter's wife Karel at the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 2011 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas.  Mr. Radin Umar won the award for his project: “Ergonomic Interventional Design of an Articulated Arm for Echocardiography Application.”  He is in his first year of a PhD program in Integrated Systems Engineering and plans to return to his home, Malaysia, upon completion.  He stated, “I'm honored to be this year's recipient of the Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award.  It inspires me to continue pursuing my passion, which is to apply ergonomics knowledge to the betterment of workplaces. It also motivates me to work harder and increase my competencies in solving real world problems.”

Augusto Espinosa was the winner of the 2010 Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award. Mr. Espinosa, a student at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is the first recipient of the Dieter W. Jahns Student Practitioner Award. The award is sponsored by the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) and was created in honor of Dieter Jahns, a life-long advocate of the practice of ergonomics and a leader in ergonomics certification.

Ergonomics can truly be collaborative! The Ergonomics Committee of the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) is in the final stages of updating their Ergonomic Assessment Toolkit with assistance from the NIOSH NORA Musculoskeletal Health Council. The Toolkit is an online guide to 25 free tools which can help practitioners assess the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics and their International Representatives have been assisting with translating the Toolkit into multiple languages. It is currently being translated into Spanish, Arabic, and Hindi. Mandarin is next!  The update and initial translations should be completed soon and will be shared on multiple different websites (AIHA, NIOSH, FPE, etc.) for ease of access for users.

FPE is pleased to announce the winners of the FPE Impact Grants for 2021. FPE Impact Grants aim to provide seed funding for small (pilot) projects that support the development of professional ergonomics worldwide.  A total of eighteen high-quality proposals were received from Columbia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.  The selection committee, comprising Drs. Harvey Cohen, Waldemar Karwowski (Chair), and Dick Kelly, unanimously decided to provide funding to two excellent proposals deemed to have the highest potential impact on the practice of ergonomics worldwide.

3 new Board members: Joe Cohen, Susan Kotowski, Kari Babski-Reeves; Treasurer, Karel Jahns retires; Wei Zhang, Tsinghua University, Beijing, joins International Advisory Committee

The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) is pleased to announce the availability of the FPE Impact Grants that aim to support small projects in the quest of developing professional ergonomics around the world. The funding preference will be given, but not limited to, applicants from the developing countries (as defined by United Nations) or proposals that help develop or grow professional ergonomics in the developing countries.  

Have you ever had any questions about what it takes to be Certified Human Factors professional?

Listen and watch the recording:  “What is Certification and What’s in it for You”

Presented by:  Dr. Andrew S. Imada, CPE

When Hurricane María released its full fury on the island of Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, the power grid was devastated.  Months later, only about 34% of the population had reliable power. Sheree Gibson, the Vice President of the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) contacted her friend and colleague, Professor Lida Orta Anés, an ergonomist who teaches in the School of Public Health at the University of Puerto Rico, to determine if there was anything that would help the University.

In 2016, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) posed a challenge to students to create a 2-minute video to answer the question, "How does human factors/ergonomics help people?"  The range of applications of human factors/ergonomics (HF/E) research is vast, and these videos capture an aspect of the field’s breadth in a concise yet creative and engaging manner.  The video contest was part of HFES's vision of extending the reach and relevance of HFES and the HF/E discipline

Ergonomists Without Borders committee members Dr. Carlos Espejo Guasco and Dr. Tom Albin presented an applied ergonomics course December 1 – 3, 2015 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The worshop was sponsored by the Administradora de Riesgos Laborales Salud Segura (Administration for Occupational Hazards and Health Insurance), an agency of the Government of the Dominican Republic, and by Sociedad Dominicana de Ergonomía, La Sociedad de Ergonomistas de Mexico and Caribbean, and the International Ergonomics Association.

The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) takes pride in awarding the 2023 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award to Rauf Iqba, PhD.  Dr. Rauf Iqbal is a Professor in the area of Operations and Supply Chain Management. His expertise is Ergonomics and Human Factors Engineering.

The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) takes pride in awarding the 2022 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award to Gregory Bedny posthumously. Gregory Z. Bedny, Ph.D., was a Ukrainian-American psychologist.

Colin Drury, PhD, CPE ret. is the recipient of the 2021 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award. The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) initiated the annual award to recognize colleagues who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the practice of ergonomics through their professional lifetime achievements and/or specific implementation projects.

J. Brian Peacock, PhD, PE, CPE is the recipient of the 2020 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award.  The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) initiated the annual award to recognize colleagues who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the practice of ergonomics through their professional lifetime achievements and/or specific implementation projects. 

Winner of the 2019 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award.

Slovak Professor Awarded 2018 Ergonomics Practitioner of the Year Award 

Tom Stuart, B.Sc., and Peter Buckle, PhD, CErgHF are the recipients for this year’s Ergonomics Practitioner Award.  The Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) initiated the annual award to recognize colleagues who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the practice of ergonomics through their professional lifetime achievements and/or specific implementation projects.  Both Tom and Peter are Past Presidents of Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors in the United Kingdom.  The award was presented at the Ergonomics and Human Factors 2018 Conference in April in Birmingham, UK.

For 2016, the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) initiated an annual award to recognize colleagues who have demonstrated outstanding contributions to the practice of ergonomics through their professional lifetime achievements and/or specific implementation projects.  Recipients for this year are Anthony D. Andre, PhD, CPE and Andrew S. Imada, PhD, CPE for their lifetime achievements in promoting ergonomics professionalism.  Both are Past Presidents of HFES and run their own businesses. The award was presented at a special gathering of HFES colleagues.