Past Post-Doctoral Fellowships

Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Arlinghaus, a psychologist from Oldenburg, Germany, collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Injury Epidemiology on multiple studies to examine the impact of long work hours, shift work, rest breaks and the quantity and quality of sleep on worker health and safety. These investigations used data from several ongoing studies including the U.S. National Health Interview Survey and two earlier Liberty Mutual and Harvard School of Public Health case-crossover studies of work-related injury. During her tenure, she also contributed to revising a risk index model for predicting injury and accident risk based on work schedule components.

 

Dr. Arlinghaus' research experience includes occupational health, injuries and accidents. She has research interests in long and unusual work hours, shift work, rest breaks, sleep, fatigue and work-life balance. Most recently, she worked as a freelance researcher in Germany after having finished her doctoral thesis during her employment at the German Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

 

At the University of Oldenburg, Germany, Dr. Arlinghaus received her Doctoral degree in psychology in 2010, and she graduated in 2007 as a psychologist with a specialization in occupational psychology. She is a member of the Working Time Society, Gesellschaft fuer Arbeitswissenschaft e.V. (Germany), and Gesellschaft fuer Arbeits-, Wirtschafts- und Organisationspsychologische Forschung e.V. (Germany).

 

Dr. Arlinghaus completed her fellowship in the summer of 2012 and is now a research scientist and consultant with the research institute GAWO e.V., Oldenburg, Germany.

Dr. Asgarzadeh collaborated with the Center for Injury Epidemiology on investigations in the research stream of built environments. With more than 10 years of experience in design and construction, consulting and research, his interests focused on understanding how built environments contribute to health, by influencing lifestyle choices, behaviors, perceptions or events including injuries.

During his tenure, Dr. Asgarzadeh examined design variables that correlate with injury rate and severity and helped identify potential controls based on the scientific findings. His work also focused on developing safer and healthier environments that encourage physical activities. He also contributed to investigations in the area of slips and falls as well as walkability.

 

Dr. Asgarzadeh is working towards a Master’s degree in public health in environmental health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In 2010, he received a Ph.D. in architecture from the University of Tokyo. He earned a B.A. degree from Tehran University. He has published more than 10 scientific papers and has presented his work at conferences around the world. A member of the American Public Health Association, Massachusetts Public Health Association and National Post-Doctoral Association, he also serves as Vice President of the Post-Doctoral Association at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

 

Dr. Borowsky worked with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Sciences in the area of driver safety. His research focused on how drivers who are momentarily interrupted by a secondary task (e.g., speaking on a cell phone, changing a radio station, etc.) identify hazardous situations while driving (e.g., a pedestrian crossing the road from behind parked cars). The study explores whether drivers' hazard perception abilities deteriorate as a result of engaging in a secondary task. During his tenure, he collaborated with research scientists to prepare the Institute’s new driving simulator for experimental use for the investigation.

 

As a student and researcher, Dr. Borowsky has developed driver safety research interests in the areas of hazard perception and eye movements, novice versus experienced drivers, elderly drivers and distraction. His research experience also includes applied cognition, attention, situation awareness, skill acquisition and automaticity, as well as interests in visual displays and eye movement proficiency. He has published 13 scientific papers and conference proceedings and has presented his work at a number of international conferences.

 

Dr. Borowsky came to the United States from Israel to complete his post-doctoral studies. In 2011, he earned his Doctoral degree in human factors engineering at Ben-Gurion University of The Negev, Israel. At the University, he also received a Master of Science degree in human factors engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering and management. While completing his studies he served as a student advisor, taught and oversaw the University’s Department of Industrial Engineering Eye Movements’ Laboratory.

 

Since completing his tenure in August 2013, Dr. Borowsky was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. His work focuses on traffic safety as well as other human factors related research.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts-Lowell

 

Dr. Boyer worked with the Institute’s Center for Physical Ergonomics to examine hand, shoulder and low back loads during simulated two-handed medical cart-pushing tasks. The study aimed to describe the patterns of force, motion and perceived exertion during a set of common but understudied manual handling conditions in healthcare. The research helped to better understand the effects of different floor surfaces, space constraints and cart precision operation levels on hand, shoulder and low back loads. During his tenure, Dr. Boyer also collaborated with researchers from the Institute’s Centers for Disability Research and Injury Epidemiology to produce a review paper, entitled “The use of O*NET as a job exposure matrix: A literature review.” The American Journal of Industrial Medicine accepted the paper for publication in 2010.

 

At the University, Dr. Boyer collaborated with colleagues in the Department of Work Environment on a research project entitled “Promotion of caregivers physical and mental health through transdisciplinary intervention (Pro-Care).” His responsibilities included field assessments of biomechanical and psychosocial exposures, employee health assessments, survey methods development and administration, supervision of data collection and management, liaising with research partners and training new research and management staff. Dr. Boyer’s work is strongly influenced by socio-technical systems theory and participatory ergonomics principles of workplace analysis and intervention.

 

Dr. Boyer received his Sc.D. in occupational ergonomics, an M.S. in industrial hygiene and a B.S. in exercise physiology from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. His professional affiliations include the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, American Society of Safety Engineers, American Industrial Hygiene Association and American Public Health Association. He has presented his work at various professional conferences and authored or co-authored scientific articles published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine, and Ergonomics.

 

Since completing his tenure in July 2010, Dr. Boyer became manager, Environmental Health and Safety at Children's Hospital in Boston, MA.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Catena collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Physical Ergonomics on a project to analyze the stability of individuals during lateral load transfers. For the investigation, he applied his clinical expertise in balance and stability analyses and refined it specifically to occupational injuries. Following his tenure, Dr. Catena continued to analyze data collected while at the Institute. He presented some of the outcomes of this work at national and international scientific conferences, and he worked with Institute scientists on manuscripts for journal publication.

 

Dr. Catena received a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Alaska and an M.S. and Ph.D. in biomechanics from the University of Oregon. His previous research culminated in a dissertation titled, "Attention and gait performance following a concussion" that highlighted the interactions between biomechanical and cognitive performance following brain injuries. Making this research possible was a combination of skills and interests in anatomy, biomechanics, motor control and neuroscience.

 

After completing his fellowship in September 2009, Dr. Catena joined Vector Scientific, Inc. as a forensic biomechanist.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

In collaboration with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Science researchers, Dr. Chang examined risk factors associated with computer use, which included duration, physical exposures and work patterns of intensive computer users. He also worked on a field investigation to help reduce the physical risk factors associated with radiologists’ intensive computer use. The project involved a cognitive work analysis, which led to task redesign to reduce physical exposures. Beyond his post-doctoral tenure, Dr. Chang continued to collaborate with researchers on a second phase of the investigation.

 

Dr. Chang’s research interests include risk assessment of intensive computer users and field measurement of physical exposure, postural loading, and muscle activation. He received a Sc.D. in environmental engineering and science, from the Harvard School of Public Health, and an M.S. in industrial hygiene and a B.S. in physical therapy from the National Taiwan University. While he was pursuing his studies, Dr. Chang worked as a teaching and research assistant at the respective universities. He has presented and published his work in scientific journals including the European Journal of Applied Physiology, the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, Work and Ergonomics.

 

After completing his tenure in September 2009, Dr. Chang became a consultant with McKinsey & Company, a leading global management-consulting firm, providing expertise to a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Chiu worked with the Institute’s Center for Center for Physical Ergonomics on a project to identify age-related differences in lower limb inter-joint coordination to help improve the stair use safety in the elderly population. The research aimed to establish correlations between movement coordination and balance control, which may have implications for clinical use for identifying risks in the elderly population. She also helped Institute researchers analyze data for a project to assess the effects of fatigue and training on posture control and movement coordination during repetitive lifting. In addition to her work at the Institute, Dr. Chiu collaborated on a project at Harvard to examine movement coordination of upper extremities in product design and evaluation of computer-based work environments.

 

Dr. Chiu has research interests in injury prevention with an emphasis on movement analysis, including gait deviations, movement coordination, variability, functional performance, muscle strength and balance control during locomotion. Her dissertation, titled "Assessing inter-joint coordination during walking," highlighted the mechanisms of neuromuscular control during level-ground walking. The investigation studied the properties of inter-joint coordination patterns and the variability of different levels of neuromuscular systems, including aging, mild traumatic brain injury (concussion) and a localized joint deficit (hip osteoarthritis followed by total hip arthroplasty). The findings revealed the dynamic features of movement coordination during level ground walking.

 

Prior to her tenure as a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Chiu served as a graduate teaching fellow with the Department of Human Physiology at the University of Oregon, where she received her Ph.D. in 2012. She received an M.S. in bio-kinesiology from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in physical therapy from the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. She has published five research papers and has presented her work at a number of international conferences.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts-Lowell

 

Dr. Cifuentes was the inaugural post-doctoral fellow from the Institute’s joint program with the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. During his tenure from June 2006 to June 2008, he collaborated with Institute scientists on a project to examine the variables involved in prescribing opioids for pain management. He also worked with researchers to examine the association between residential location and extent of disability in a work injured population. The respective investigations were published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine (Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 162–171, Online, 2008) and the Journal for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 204-212, 2009). As a post-doctoral fellow, he also initiated the data management and analyses for another study on opioid use and worked on a proposal for an additional investigation relative to healthcare utilization and outcomes.

 

Dr. Cifuentes’ varied experience includes positions in both academic research and clinical practice. Prior to accepting his post-doctoral position, he was involved with various occupational health-related projects as a research assistant at University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Before coming to the United States from his native home in Talcahuano, Chile, he was an assistant professor in the Public Health Department of the University of Concepción-Chile School of Medicine; had a private clinical psychiatric practice in Concepción, Chile, worked as a research consultant for the Mental Health Unit of Province of Concepción Health Service and the Chilean Ministry of Health and served as a general physician at a private practice in Santiago, Chile. Dr. Cifuentes’ current research interests include injury epidemiology; disability, medical utilization, and healthcare management; and research on occupational exposure to work stress and cardiovascular diseases.

 

Dr. Cifuentes received his M.D. from the University of Concepción-Chile, M.P.H. from the University of Chile, and his Sc.D. in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. He has published several articles in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals and has presented his work at major international conferences. A member of the American Public Health Association and Workers Compensation Research Group, he is also a corresponding member of the Cross-Cutting Issues Expert Group in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD Study), a World Health Organization supported program to standardize health metrics across the world.

 

Upon completion of his post-doctoral tenure, Dr. Cifuentes joined the Research Institute staff focusing his work on epidemiology of return to work after occupational injuries.

 

Dr. Faber collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Physical Ergonomics to investigate field measurement techniques for assessing spinal loading during manual materials handling tasks. The project aimed to develop and validate new measurement tools for easy and continuous ambulatory field assessment of spinal loading. During his tenure, he also collaborated with Harvard researchers on the biomechanics of computer work.

 

Dr. Faber has expertise in three-dimensional occupational biomechanics. Specifically, his interests include the effects of ergonomic interventions on spinal loading. His doctoral research project focused on spinal loading during occupational manual work in the field. He also has worked on research projects to investigate the effects of cart pushing and of wearing a stiff lifting belt on spinal loading. He has also studied the effect of different lifting techniques on spinal loading and investigated the use of an inertial sensor to measure stability of human walking. In addition to his research, Dr. Faber taught courses in mechanical analysis of human motion and three-dimensional kinematics at the VU University Amsterdam. He also served on the editorial board of the Dutch Journal of Ergonomics.

 

A native of The Netherlands, Dr. Faber graduated cum laude from VU University Amsterdam. In 2010 he received his Ph.D. in occupational biomechanics from Department of Human Movement Sciences and in 2005 he received an M.Sc. in ergonomics from the Department of Human Movement Sciences.

 

Dr. Faber completed his fellowship in the summer of 2012 and returned to The Netherlands where he became an assistant professor at the VU University, Amsterdam.

 

Dr. Gray worked with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral investigation into lone mobile workers. Applying his expertise in qualitative methodologies, he assisted in the conceptual linkages between safety culture and climate.

 

A native of Ontario, Canada, Dr. Gray's research interests include work and health, safety culture, qualitative methods, organizational theory, risk, regulation, law and society and near-miss events. At the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, he worked on a large project involving hospital safety culture and climate. In addition, Dr. Gray actively collaborated with health and safety researchers in Canada, England, France and locally at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published and presented his work widely. He served as co-guest editor of a special issue on workplace safety in the journal Human Relations.

 

In 2008, Dr. Gray received his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. His dissertation consisted of an in-depth qualitative study into industrial safety culture. He earned an M.A. from the Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto and a B.A. with honors from the University of Toronto.

 

Following his post-doctoral fellowship position, Dr. Gray took a research fellow position in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts-Lowell

 

Dr. Jetha worked with the Centers for Behavioral Sciences and Disability Research to apply sociotechnical systems thinking approaches to the return-to-work process. Dr. Jetha applied system dynamics modeling techniques to examine critical feedback relationships between influential system components in order to understand their impact on return-to-work outcomes. Through his research, he aspires to contribute to the development of holistic and sustainable solutions for work disability.

 

In 2013, Dr. Jetha received a Ph.D. in Health and Behavioral Sciences from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr. Jetha’s doctoral research examined the impact that chronic disabling health conditions, such as juvenile arthritis and lupus, have on employment and work productivity among young people transitioning to adulthood. During this period, he also held doctoral fellowships at the University of Toronto in the Comparative Program in Health and Society at the Munk School of Global Affairs and in the Strategic Training Initiative in Public Health Policy.

Dr. Jetha has an M.Sc. in health, community, and development from the Institute of Social Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is an honors graduate from the Faculty of Social Sciences at McMaster University, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in kinesiology.

 

Dr. Jetha is a member of the American Public Health Association and a reviewer for the Disability and Health Journal and Arthritis Care and Research. He has published five peer-reviewed papers, authored a book chapter, contributed to research manuscripts, and has presented his work at a number of conferences throughout the world.

 

Following his tenure, Dr. Jetha took a fellow position with the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

 

Dr. Jin was the first post-doctoral fellow to participate in the formal program with the Harvard School of Public Health. During his tenure from October 2003 to July 2008, his research focused on acute hand injury in China. In collaboration with scientists from Liberty Mutual and the Harvard School of Public Health, Dr. Jin designed and helped implement a multi-site, case-crossover field study to examine the risk factors of severe hand injuries in China. The investigation resulted in three scientific papers including two in Injury Prevention (Vol. 13, pp. 133–136, 2007 and Vol. 16, pp. 42-49, 2010) and one in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (Vol. 6, pp. 446-456).

 

A native of China, Dr. Jin received his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in occupational health from Fudan University in Shanghai, China. At the University, he served as a lecturer and researcher in occupational ergonomics, injury, and epidemiology. He maintains interests in occupational musculoskeletal disorders and work-related injuries.

 

Following his tenure, Dr. Jin accepted a faculty position at the Fudan University School of Public Health and continued to conduct research in occupational injury and ergonomics.

 

Dr. Karol collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Sciences. His research focused on developing new methods to investigate musculoskeletal disorders that may be associated with knowledge work. Specifically, the investigation integrated techniques from motor control, psychology and upper extremity biomechanics to quantify the onset and progress of musculoskeletal disorders. In addition, Dr. Karol collaborated with colleagues at Harvard to evaluate the ergonomics and motor control of smart phone, tablets and certain biomedical devices.

 

Dr. Karol’s research interests include upper extremity biomechanics, motor control, cognitive psychology, perceptual psychophysics, human computer interaction and data visualization. Prior to his fellowship, Dr. Karol worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Maryland, where he designed course work in biomechanics of human movement and led interactive lectures for a class of more than 120 students. There, he also managed the Neuromechanics Laboratory in the Department of Kinesiology. In addition, Dr. Karol worked part time as a user experience specialist with Userworks, a consulting company based in Maryland.

 

A native of India, Dr. Karol came to the U.S. to complete his education. An honors student, he received a Doctoral and Master’s degree in kinesiology from the University of Maryland School of Public Health and earned a Bachelor of Technology in mechanical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, India. He has published 13 scientific investigations and has presented his work internationally. He is a member of the International Society of Biomechanics, the American Society of Biomechanics, the Society for Neuroscience and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

 

Dr. Karol completed his fellowship in May 2013 and accepted a position with Microsoft Corporation.

Dr. Lee collaborated with the Center for Behavioral Sciences to investigate safety climate interventions. His work included a series of qualitative research investigations that used data from workers and field safety consultants and a literature review. The project aimed to identify which work systems components help improve safety climate, and may inform future safety climate research and intervention.

 

Dr. Lee holds research interests in safety climate assessment and management in high-risk industries, work system improvement through the perspectives of macroergonomics and Total Worker Health™, and application of advanced quantitative methodology in multidisciplinary research efforts.

 

Since 2011, Dr. Lee has served as a guest reviewer for Accident Analysis and Prevention. He is a member of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the Society of Occupational Health Psychology, and the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He has published 12 peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented his work at conferences around the world.

 

Previously, Dr. Lee was a researcher at the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace. He earned his Ph.D and M.A. degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and is a graduate from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea, with an M.A. in clinical psychology and a B.A. in psychology with honors.

 

After completing his fellowship in 2016, Dr. Lee accepted a position at Kansas State University as an assistant professor with the Department of Psychological Sciences.

 

Dr. Murphy collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Sciences on a large-scale investigation that examined employees’ perceptions of their companies’ safety climates. The study examined how coworkers’ shared perceptions of their company’s safety priorities influence their individual behaviors and outcomes. The investigation focused on lone mobile workers, specifically truck drivers and utility workers who typically work independently and drive alone for long durations. In addition to this study, Dr. Murphy also worked with researchers on other new and on-going investigations.

 

Dr. Murphy previously visited the Research Institute in 2008 as a safety research fellow under the Institute’s joint safety fellowship program with the American Society of Safety Engineers Foundation. During that program, she collaborated on a literature review to examine the potential effects of social modeling on safety behavior. In addition to the safety fellowship, she also worked as a research assistant at the Institute from February 2010 to January 2011.

 

Dr. Murphy has a diverse work background. Prior to her fellowship, she served as a research assistant for The Center for Work-Family Stress, Safety and Health at Portland State University. While in Portland, she also held positions as a job analysis consultant for PacifiCorp, a research consultant with the City of Portland Water Bureau and a data collector at Portland State University. She has advanced knowledge in quantitative research (e.g., survey development, testing/administration), qualitative research methods (e.g., focus groups, interviews) and data analysis. Her expertise includes design, implementation and validation of employee recruiting, selection, training, performance evaluation and 360-degree feedback systems. She also has experience with employee assistance and family-friendly programs.

 

Dr. Murphy received her Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from Portland State University.  She is a summa cum laude honors graduate from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she received a B.S. in psychology. She has published and presented research at professional meetings and served as an ad hoc reviewer for Accident Analysis and Prevention and as a reviewer for Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science. Dr. Murphy is a member of the Society for Industrial/Organizational Psychology, the Society for Occupational Health Psychology and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.

 

After completing her tenure in 2014, Dr. Murphy became an occupational health research psychologist with the State of Washington's Safety & Health Assessment & Research for Prevention program.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Nelson collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Disability Research. Primarily, she worked on a research project that investigated the informal accommodations that supervisors make to support employees with chronic pain or illness. She also worked with researchers on projects to investigate expectations for returning to work following an injury and to study the reasons that low-back pain sufferers request an un-indicated MRI. Further, in conjunction with researchers at Harvard School of Public Health and Dana Farber Cancer Institute, she worked on a project to assess the effectiveness of an intervention targeted at reducing injury and low-back pain among hospital nurses and nursing assistants. She also studied organizational factors that influence the implementation and dissemination of programs that combine worksite wellness with occupational health and safety.

 

Prior to beginning her doctoral training at Harvard, Dr. Nelson worked as a project manager and research specialist in health behavior at Kaiser Permanente in Denver, Colorado. Her work focused on self-management for patients with type 2 diabetes, worksite wellness and obesity prevention, online weight-loss programs and community engagement in support of healthy eating and active living. Dr. Nelson focused her doctoral research in the area of work, stress, work-family conflict and health behavior. During her studies, she worked as a research assistant at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard School of Public Health on research relating to worksite wellness, occupational health and safety, stress, and physical activity.

 

In 2011, Dr. Nelson received a Doctor of Science degree from the Department of Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health. She received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Denver and a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University, Chico. She has published 12 scientific papers and has presented her work a number of national conferences. She is a member of the American Public Health Association, the American Anthropological Association and the Society for Applied Anthropology.

 

Dr. Nelson completed her tenure in 2014 and became a consultant with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

 

Dr. Qin worked with the Institute’s Center for Physical Ergonomics to study risk factors for biomechanical loading on the shoulder during typical manual materials handling tasks (e.g. pushing, pulling and reaching). She also collaborated with University of Massachusetts-Lowell faculty on upper extremity biomechanics and ergonomics research projects, presented scientific findings and lead class lectures. Her research interests include the prevention and control of work-related injuries through risk assessment, injury epidemiology, intervention design, risk reduction and occupational injury prevention policies.

 

As a doctoral student, Dr. Qin used biomechanical modeling techniques and simulation to estimate in vivo passive finger muscle forces. She also investigated 3-D kinematic and kinetic loading on the upper extremity during computer keying activities. Her master’s research evaluated the effect of pace and stress on wrist kinematics among professional sign language interpreters.

 

Dr. Qin received her Doctor of Science in environmental and occupational health from the Harvard School of Public Health, a Master of Science in industrial engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and a Bachelor Degree in mechanical engineering from Tianjin University, China.

 

After completing her fellowship August 2013, Dr. Qin became an epidemic intelligence service officer with the Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA.

 

Dr. Reme, a clinical psychologist from the University of Bergen, Norway, worked with the Institute’s Center for Disability Research. During her fellowship, she collaborated on an early intervention study for work disability prevention. In addition, she worked with Harvard School of Public Health researchers to implement interventions that include both health promotion and safety in the workplace, with a particular focus on musculoskeletal disorders and psychological factors.

 

Dr. Reme has long-standing interests in the field of work and health, disability and rehabilitation. Her research focuses on risk disability factors and potential cognitive/ behavioural interventions to improve outcomes. She published several articles on studies of patients with back pain and other health outcomes and has presented her work widely.

 

A native of Norway, Dr. Reme completed her educational studies at the University of Bergen, earning her doctorate in psychology as well as her clinical psychology and undergraduate degrees. She is a member of the Norwegian Society for Cognitive Therapy, the Norwegian Society for Behavioural Medicine, and the International Network for Subjective and Unexplained Health Complaints. Dr. Reme has served as a peer reviewer for Patient Education and Counselling and the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.

 

Following her post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Reme returned to Bergen, Norway, where she became a senior researcher at UniHealth, a non-profit research foundation affiliated with the University of Bergen.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 

Dr. Samuel worked with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Sciences in the area of transportation safety and human factors. During his tenure, he applied his expertise with simulation and eye-tracking, quantitative research methods and experimental design. His work focused on safety issues related to the implementation of semi- and fully autonomous systems in motor vehicles. His research project aimed at investigating how drivers’ trust in automation, quality of calibration and skill level affect their ability to successfully re-engage driving control from an autonomous system.

 

Dr. Samuel has research interests and experience spanning several areas including distracted driving, driver training and remediation, vulnerable road user safety (pedestrians and bicyclists), vehicle automation and human-in-the-loop issues and etiology. His experience includes design methods involving simulator studies, on-road field assessments and observational experiments. During his tenure, he collaborated with researchers at national and international institutions and spearheading several projects to investigate human factors issues in vehicle automation, crash causation, driver remediation and vulnerable road user safety.

 

Following his tenure, Dr. Samuel accepted a position as a research assistant professor with the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts-Lowell

 

Dr. Shraim conducted research with the Institute’s Center for Disability Research in close collaboration with faculty in the Department of Work Environment at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. His studies examined factors associated with geographic variation in length of disability in workers with occupational low back pain and other injuries, as well as variation in impact of early opioid prescribing and MRI scanning as risk factors for length of disability.

 

As a student and researcher, Dr. Shraim developed his interests in primary care epidemiology and health services research while working in the United Kingdom. For his doctoral research, he examined family-specific patterns of pain and symptoms leading to primary care visits. Through his research and training, he developed advanced knowledge in quantitative research methods, including design and implementation of case-control studies and multi-level analysis. Most recently he worked as a senior ophthalmic nurse practitioner at Birmingham and Midland Eye Center in the UK.

 

Dr. Shraim graduated from Keele University in 2013 with a Ph.D. in epidemiology. He received a Master of Public Health degree from Birmingham University and a Bachelor of Science with honors in Nursing from City University-London. Dr. Shraim has two journal publications and a number of conference presentations. He is a member of the Society for Social Medicine and the Royal College of Nursing.

 

After completing his tenure, Dr. Shraim accepted assistant professor of epidemiology position at An Najah National University, Palestine.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Swedler collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Injury Epidemiology. His research examined workload, workplace and safety climate factors that affect slips and falls in limited-service (fast food) restaurant workers. These studies employed case-crossover and structural equation modeling techniques to fully understand these complex relationships.

 

Previously, Dr. Swedler was a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health doctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Education and Research Center. As a doctoral student in the Center for Injury Research and Policy, his dissertation research focused on distracted driving in truck drivers as an occupational hazard. While at Johns Hopkins, he also led a pilot project examining occupational homicides of law enforcement officers nationwide.

 

Prior to attending Johns Hopkins, Dr. Swedler worked as an epidemiology intern in the Injury Prevention Program at the U.S. Army Public Health Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. In 2013, Dr. Swedler completed his Ph.D. in health policy and management at Johns Hopkins. He received an M.P.H. in general epidemiology from the University of Michigan in 2006 and a B.S. in microbiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2004. He is a coauthor on more than two dozen peer-reviewed manuscripts and government reports.

 

Dr. Swedler completed his tenure in 2014. He became a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Tveito collaborated with the Institute’s Center for Disability Research on an investigation into a self-management intervention for workers who experience chronic pain. The project aimed to develop a workplace intervention that applies principles from successful pain self-management group interventions. Concurrently, she worked with researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health to develop an integrated health protection and health promotion intervention focusing on musculoskeletal health for nurses in two Boston hospitals.

 

Dr. Tveito’s primary research interests include worker health, sick leave and return to work, as well as rehabilitation. A citizen of Bergen, Norway, she came to the United States to participate in the Liberty Mutual-Harvard School of Public Health post-doctoral program. Previously, she held fellowships and a research assistant position with the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Bergen. Dr. Tveito began her professional career as a dentist.

 

At the University of Bergen, Dr. Tveito received her Doctoral, Master, and Bachelor degrees in health promotion and health psychology, as well as her degree in dentistry. She earned her Master of Science in epidemiology from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam. She has published a number of scientific papers, including a book chapter on the effect of workplace interventions to prevent and treat low back pain, and has presented her work extensively. She is a member of the Norwegian Association of Researchers and serves as a board member with the Norwegian Society of Behavioural Medicine.

 

Upon completion of her tenure in 2010, she returned to Norway to resume a post-doctoral assignment with the Department for Health Promotion and Development at the University of Bergen.

Dr. Wright collaborated with the Center for Behavioral Sciences in the area of transportation research. During his tenure, he investigated age-related factors that influence the use of driverless vehicles (also known as self-driving or autonomous vehicles) and how these factors influence the drivers’ ability to take control when the automated system requires manual operation.

 

Previously, Dr. Wright worked as a pre-doctoral researcher at Florida State University. His research interests span basic and applied aspects of attention including how aging influences attention and other cognitive abilities. He studied the factors that capture attention in visual scenes and also the factors that determine what goes unnoticed in these scenes. He also investigated the extent to which driving distractions can impair both older and younger drivers, how training can mitigate age-related attentional and cognitive declines and the effectiveness of interventions designed to combat these declines.

 

While at University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Dr. Wright served as a post-doctoral research associate. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology at Florida State University in 2013 and 2015, respectively. A member of the Vision Sciences Society, he also served as a reviewer for Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics and the Journal of Gernontechnology. Since 2011, his work was acknowledged through numerous awards and fellowships from the American Psychological Association, Florida State University and Florida State University’s affiliated University Transportation Center. He has published 11 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and his work has resulted in nearly two dozen professional conference presentations.

Upon completion of his tenure, Dr. Wright took a postion with Dunlap and Associates, Inc. in Stamford, CT.

​Affiliation: Harvard School of Public Health

 

Dr. Xu collaborated with research scientists from the Institute’s Center for Physical Ergonomics to investigate 2D and 3D lifting models used in the development of video-based lifting exposure assessment methods. The study proposed a new method to estimate joint loading on a worker’s body during manual materials handling tasks. The new method, based on a model previously developed at the Research Institute, can assess the risk of overexertion for more complex lifting tasks using videotape recordings from the field.

 

Dr. Xu's research interests include occupational biomechanics, upper extremity modeling, gait analysis and multivariate statistical analysis. Previously, he served as a teaching assistant at North Carolina University. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees from the North Carolina State University, Raleigh and his B.S. from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. A member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, he has served as a guest reviewer with Accident Analysis and Prevention, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Ergonomics, and Human Factors.

 

Dr. Xu completed his tenure in 2010, and accepted a position as a research scientist with the Institute's Center for Physical Ergonomics.

​Affiliation: University of Massachusetts-Amherst

 

Dr. Yamani worked with the Institute’s Center for Behavioral Sciences in the area of transportation safety. His research aimed to explore older drivers’ safety at intersections. During his tenure, he examined relationships between normal aging, visual scanning patterns and motor control of the vehicle. His research interests include attention mechanisms and how they constrain human performance in basic and applied environments.

 

Prior to his tenure as a post-doctoral fellow, Dr. Yamani was a graduate student researcher, instructor and teaching assistant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the American Psychological Society, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for Human Factors, Computer Human Interaction and IEEE Transaction on Human-Machine Systems. With seven published articles, he has also presented his work at a number of professional conferences.

 

In 2013, Dr. Yamani received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His dissertation focused on people’s ability to divide attention across the visual field and how it changes across lifespan. At the University, he also received his M.S. in human factors in 2010. He graduated with a B.A. in psychology and philosophy from the State University of New York at Geneseo.

 

After completing his fellowship in 2014, Dr. Yamani accepted a faculty position at Old Dominion University.