Visiting Scholar Program

Mike Regan, Ph.D.

In 2016, Dr. Mike Regan, chief scientist-human factors for the Australian Road Research Board Group and adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales School of Aviation was the Institute's Visiting Scholar.

An applied experimental psychologist, Dr. Regan specializes in road and aviation safety. His research includes driver distraction and inattention, human interaction with intelligent transport systems, naturalistic driving studies and field testing of advanced driver assistance systems. He has authored more than 200 published documents, including the first book on driver distraction.

During his tenure, Dr. Regan worked with Institute scientists developing a behavioral-based model and theory of driver distraction and designing a program to explore driver calibration during transfer of control to and from automated vehicles. He also wrote chapters on human factors and automated vehicles and contributed expertise to the Institute's sociotechnical systems research.

One of his primary responsibilities at the Australian Road Research Board Group is to help set the overall strategic scientific research direction for the organization. He is also charged with creating scientific collaborations with universities and other like-minded research institutes.

Future collaborations between the Research Institute and the Australian Road Research Board Group include work on a rating scheme of driver-vehicle interfaces designed to reduce distraction as well as a sociotechnical analysis, funded by the Australian government, of their transport safety management system.

Alex Kirlik, Ph.D.

In 2015, Professor Alex Kirlik, of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign focused on two research initiatives. The first project, worker safety in sociotechnical systems, was generated from a Hopkinton Conference on this topic and the subsequent special issue of the journal Ergonomics. Dr. Kirlik and Institute research scientists reviewed some of the insights, techniques, and research partnerships that grew out of the conference and journal issue with an aim to develop interventions to improve safety in building construction and rail transportation. The second project involved driver safety, including issues of mitigating driver distraction, better understanding the implications of forthcoming vehicle automation concepts for drivers, and investigating how well drivers are able to estimate their driving performance relative to other drivers or to externally posed driving demands. Through ongoing collaborative discussions, the researchers made progress in addressing these areas, often in the form of modeling approaches and in ideas for bringing the phenomena of interest under experimental control and study.

Dr. Kirlik’s research interests include human factors, human-automation interaction, visualization and visual analytics, healthcare and medical informatics, sociotechnical systems, and transportation safety. His research program in human-computer interaction, human factors, and cognitive science and engineering has focused on understanding and supporting the cognition (typically judgment, decision making, prediction, and system monitoring and control) of experienced adult performers and professionals in high-stakes contexts and sociotechnical systems. For more than 20 years, NASA has supported his research contributions to commercial aviation safety in both airborne and ground operations.

At the University, Dr. Kirlik is a professor in the Department of Computer Science, with additional appointments in the Department of Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering, the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, and the Information Trust Institute. He served as acting head of the Illinois Human Factors program in the Institute of Aviation from 2006 through2010. He is a member of IEEE: Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society, the Human Factors & Ergonomics Society, the Brunswik Society (Judgment and Decision Making), the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and the International Society for Ecological Psychology. An associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, he also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making, Human Factors, and Oxford Series in Human-Technology Interaction.

Dr. Kirlik earned his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Human-Machine Systems) at The Ohio State University. His Ph.D. thesis, "The organization of perception and action in complex control skills," earned the George Briggs Award from APA's Division of Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychologists for being the best dissertation of the year. During his academic career, he held positions with the University of Illinois and Georgia Tech. He has also held visiting positions at Stanford University and NASA Ames Research Center, Yale University, Haskins Laboratory, the University of Connecticut and Draper Laboratory.

John M. Flach, Ph.D.

In 2014 Dr. Flach, of Wright State University, collaborated with Research Institute scientists on two investigations to explore a systems approach to sociotechnical organizations. Specifically, one investigation examined how experts within Liberty Mutual Insurance assess risks in large companies. This project aimed to discover some of the implicit or intuitive knowledge of experts with respect to assessing risk, with a goal to integrate the study findings into decision tools and training. The second project explored approaches to modeling driver performance. This investigation focused on human drivers’ ability to anticipate collisions and brake properly. Researchers compared their collision control logic with automatic braking algorithms.

Dr. Flach’s expertise is in the area of applied cognitive psychology and cognitive systems engineering. At Wright State University, he is a professor in the departments of Psychology and Biomedical Industrial and Human Factors Engineering. He has authored books on modeling human control performance and interface design, published more than 100 scientific journal articles, and presented his work widely.

A member of the Human Factors Society, Dr. Flach also served on the Society’s editorial board for 10 years. He is a member and past president of the Southern Ohio Chapter Human Factors Society and a member of the International Society for Ecological Psychology, where he also served on the Board of Directors. Currently, he is on the editorial board for Cognition, Technology, and Work and Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics. Previously, he served on editorial boards for the International Journal of Cognitive Ergonomics, International Journal of Applied Ergonomics, and Human Factors. Dr. Flach earned his Ph.D. in Human Experimental Psychology from The Ohio State University, an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Dayton, and B.A. in Psychology from St. Joseph's College.

Clark Dickerson, Ph.D.

In 2013 Dr. Dickerson, of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, collaborated on an investigation geared toward the prevention of muscular fatigue in the shoulder. The study aimed to identify postural zones to help reduce shoulder injuries, including impingement and rotator cuff disease. The findings aimed to provide insight into muscle fatigue and to help improve theoretical predictive models for mitigating injury risk.

Before arriving at the Institute, Dr. Dickerson conducted laboratory work examining manual tasks and body postures, focusing on their interaction with key muscles of the rotator cuff. He is an expert researcher in the area of shoulder mechanics and has produced one of the most advanced ergonomic shoulder exposure prediction models available worldwide. His research aims to generate new knowledge on fundamental shoulder function and dysfunction; creation and validation of mathematical models to predict shoulder demands; applications of shoulder biomechanics to workplace injury prevention; and rehabilitative and preventive strategies for ensuring lifelong shoulder health.

At the University of Waterloo, Dr. Dickerson is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology. In 2005, he earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan. He earned a Master of Science degree in bioengineering from Clemson University Bioengineering, and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Alfred University. He is a member of the American Society of Biomechanics, the Association of Canadian Ergonomists, the Canadian Society for Biomechanics, and the International Society of Biomechanics. Dr. Dickerson has published more than 50 scientific journal articles and has presented his work widely.

Li-Shan Chou, Ph.D

In 2012, University of Oregon Professor Chou collaborated with Institute scientists on a multidisciplinary study of cognitive and motor functions in older workers. The study examined the role of attentional demands and gait or balance control in workers of different age groups and aimed to assist researchers in developing a better understanding of the effect age has on a worker’s ability to maintain balance while walking and avoid tripping over obstacles. Dr. Chou conducted an extensive literature review prior to his arrival at the Institute. During his tenure, he worked with Institute researchers to establish the study protocol, and he continued to collaborate with the Institute throughout the study duration.

Dr. Chou is an expert in the areas of clinical gait analysis, assessment of dynamic stability during locomotion, and mathematical modeling of the musculoskeletal system. He is a professor in the Department of Human Physiology at the University of Oregon. His teaching emphasizes the areas of biomechanical analysis of human movement, orthopedic biomechanics, and rehabilitation engineering. In his research, he applies engineering and mechanical theories to enhance scientific understanding of mechanisms governing human locomotion and the factors related to the increased incidence of falls in the elderly.

Dr. Chou received both his doctoral and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Tatung Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C. He is a member of the American Society of Biomechanics, Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society, the International Society of Biomechanics, the International Society for Posture and Gait Research, and the World Association for Chinese Biomedical Engineers. Currently, he serves as an editorial board member for the Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Journal of Musculoskeletal Research, and ISRN Rehabilitation. Dr. Chou has presented his work widely and has published 60 original peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Johan Hviid Andersen, M.D., Ph.D.

In 2010 Dr. Andersen, of the Regional Hospital in Herning, Denmark, collaborated with research scientists from the Centers for Physical Ergonomics and Behavioral Sciences to conduct a comprehensive review of the scientific literature investigating the relationship between computer use and work-related injuries. The project involved a systematic review of approximately 1,500 research papers to determine whether computer use is associated with increased risk of musculoskeletal disorders and carpal tunnel syndrome. The review, which completed a larger Danish epidemiological and clinical study of approximately 7,000 computer workers, aimed to identify best practices and interventions for workers who regularly use computers.

At the Regional Hospital in Herning, Dr. Andersen is a professor and senior consultant in the Department of Occupational Medicine. In this role, he works as a physician and teacher, focusing primarily on research. Dr. Andersen completed his M.D. at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, and he received a Ph.D. in Epidemiology from the University’s Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine. He completed residencies at the Danish Labor Inspection Board, the Department of Occupational Medicine at the University of Aarhus, Randers Hospital, and Aarhus University Hospital, in Denmark. He has published and presented his work widely. Dr. Andersen is a member of the Occupational Diseases Committee at the Danish National Board of Industrial Injuries, and he works for the Danish Medico-Legal Council.

Dov Zohar, Ph.D.

In 2009, Dr. Zohar served as the Institute's Visiting Scholar. He is one of the world’s leading researchers in the area of safety climate, an area that addresses employees’ shared perceptions of a company’s safety policies, procedures, and practices, as well as the overall importance of safety at work.

Dr. Zohar worked with Institute scientists on an investigation of safety climate impact on mobile lone workers and mobile remote workers. He applied his expertise to develop preliminary safety climate scales for the two types of companies participating in the study – trucking and utility. The investigation aimed to help researchers to better understand how organizational safety climate impacts safety outcomes for employees who work alone and in a remote location, as well as provide new insight and knowledge to help improve the occupational safety for these types of workers.

Dr. Zohar is a professor at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He earned his Ph.D. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, and his B.A. from the Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He has held visiting appointments in Canada with the Gallup Leadership Institute, the Institute for Work and Health, the University of Toronto, and the University of Calgary, and, in the United States, with the University of Maryland and the University of Nebraska.

An author of more than 50 scientific papers and five book chapters, Dr. Zohar presents his work widely. He published the original paper on the subject of safety climate, which defined the concept and offered a measurement scale that has become the standard in this field. An associate editor for the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology and Anxiety, Stress and Coping, he has served on the editorial board of premier scientific journals including the Journal of Organizational Behavior and Personnel Psychology and has served as a reviewer for the Journal of Applied Psychology. Dr. Zohar received the Best Safety Intervention Research Award from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institute for  Occupational Safety and Health in 2003 and  the Lifetime Career Achievement Award in Occupational Health Psychology from the American Psychological Association and CDC in 2008. A Fellow of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, he is also a member of the Society of Occupational Health Psychology, Academy of Management, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Israel Psychological Association, American Psychological Association, Stress and Anxiety Research Society, and the International Association of Applied Psychology.

Mark R. Lehto, Ph.D.

In 2008 Dr. Lehto, a professor from Purdue University, collaborated with our research scientists to refine epidemiological research methods for analyzing injury narratives. Together, they developed a semi-automated approach for classifying workers’ compensation claim narratives into the Bureau of Labor Statistics event classifications. The resulting computer algorithms classified many of the narratives with high accuracy and may help to reduce the difficulty of reviewing and classifying large administrative datasets.

Dr. Lehto also worked with Institute scientists to explore new uses of the Bayesian methodology, a statistical theory that starts with a known belief and uses conditional probabilities to derive a new outcome. The resulting submitted paper (“Electronic Application of Bayesian Methods is a Useful Tool for Classifying Injury Narratives into Cause Groups”) compares and contrasts the application of two different Bayesian methods for classifying injury narratives from large administrative databases into event cause groups.

At Purdue, Lehto is an associate professor in the School of Industrial Engineering. He also serves as the co-chair of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Human Factors and technical advisor in Industrial Engineering for the Purdue Technical Assistance Program. His research focuses on human decision-making, hazard communication, safety, and ergonomics. Currently, he is the president of Consumer Research, Inc., (West Lafayette, IN) and a principal at Miller Engineering, Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI). In addition to publishing in the peer-reviewed press and presenting to international audiences, Dr. Lehto has authored five books and 19 book chapters. His volumes on the subject of warnings have become standard field references.

Dr. Lehto received a Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, an M.S.I.E. from Purdue University, and a B.S.I.E. from Oregon State University. A past director of both the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Forensics Group, he is involved with a number of professional organizations including the American Society of Safety Engineers, Society for Hazard Communication, International Society for Occupational Ergonomics and Safety, and Association for Computing Machinery.

James Grosch, Ph.D.

In 2007 Dr. Grosch, a research psychologist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) served as the Visiting Scholar. An expert in the area of the aging workforce, he collaborated with Institute scientists to analyze occupational health and safety data as part of a larger project focusing on high-risk older workers. The research scientists examined various data sources, including the Health and Retirement Study (produced by the Institute of Social Research, University of Michigan), the Research Institute’s 2001 study of New Hampshire Older Workers and Work Injury, and Liberty Mutual claims data. Specifically, researchers examined employment outcomes of older workers from a broad base of occupations, working conditions, and health situations. Researchers also examined individual and organizational factors as well as practices that may predict or contribute to positive safety outcomes for high-risk older workers. The information gained from the analysis will help to develop recommendations for workplace policies and practices designed to promote the safety and health of this group of workers.

Dr. Grosch joined NIOSH in 1995, after completing a one-year, post-doctoral research fellowship in occupational health at Wayne University in Detroit, Michigan. Prior to that, he held research and teaching positions in the psychology departments at Colgate University (Hamilton, New York) and the State University of New York at Geneseo. His written work includes approximately 25 journal articles and book chapters, and he has contributed to several NIOSH technical publications. He is a member of the American Psychological Association, American Public Health Association, and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Dr. Grosch earned his Ph.D. in Psychology and his M.B.A. at the University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Steven J. Linton, Ph.D.

2006 Dr. Linton, an accomplished psychologist from Sweden's Örebro University, worked with Institute researchers to develop a screening questionnaire to help identify workers at risk for long-term disability due to back pain. The screening questions were derived from an extensive literature review of the most successful early return-to-work intervention strategies and the most commonly cited risk factors for prolonged work disability. The investigation aimed to validate the screening questionnaire as a tool to identify the most appropriate forms of early intervention for high-risk patients. Ultimately, the questionnaire will help researchers, clinicians, and health care practitioners to identify disability risk and to provide more individualized plans for facilitating return to work.

A licensed psychologist in Norway and Sweden, Dr. Linton is also a certified behavioral therapist. He serves as a professor of clinical psychology with the Department of Behavioral Social and Legal Sciences at Örebro University, and as a clinical psychologist with the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Örebro University Hospital. In 1984, he received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and in 2000, he was honored with the Swedish Behavior Therapy Association’s award for advancing clinical psychology.

Dr. Linton is a member of the Swedish Behavior Therapy Association, International Association for the Study of Pain, International Behavioral Medicine Society, Scandinavian Association for the Study of Pain, Swedish Behavioral Medicine Society, and the Swedish Psychological Association. In addition, he serves on the editorial review board of a number of peer-reviewed publications, including Pain, Spine, Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, British Journal of Health Psychology, Clinical Journal of Pain, International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Dr. Linton has presented his work extensively, published more than 100 articles and book chapters, and authored books including New Avenues for the Prevention of Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain and Disability and Understanding Pain for Better Clinical Practice.

W. Monroe Keyserling, Ph.D.

As the first of two Visiting Scholars in 2005, Dr. Keyserling worked with the Research Institute’s injury epidemiologists on a project to improve methods for studying the exposures associated with acute traumatic workplace injuries. The team developed a protocol that integrates engineering approaches (such as those used to assess long-term exposures for chronic cumulative injuries) with the case-crossover method that Liberty Mutual uses to assess transient risk factors for acute injury.

Dr. Keyserling is a professor in the Departments of Industrial and Operations Engineering and Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He teaches courses in work measurement, ergonomics, and safety engineering, and is associate director of the University’s Center for Occupational Health and Safety Engineering. Prior to working at the University he was an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He began his research career at the University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in industrial engineering and industrial health, an M.S. in industrial health science, and an M.S.E. in industrial and operations engineering. A certified safety professional and a certified professional ergonomist, Dr. Keyserling is a member of the Institute of Industrial Engineers and the American Society of Safety Engineers. He is widely published and serves as a reviewer for several scientific journals.

Yung-Hui Terrence Lee, Ph.D.

In 2005 Dr. Lee collaborated with researchers to investigate the effects of initial lumbar and knee postures and pre-lifting dynamics on low back loading. For the study, male test subjects performed various lifts involving both light and heavy loads, using two different starting postures and three lifting strategies. Researchers used a motion analysis tracking system to record joint movement, EMG to collect data on muscle activation, and force plates to measure ground reaction forces. The findings helped researchers better understand human lifting dynamics towards the development of postural recommendations for workers who perform manual materials handling tasks.

Dr. Lee is a professor with the Department of Industrial Management at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology in Taipei, where he previously served as department chairman and dean of student affairs. He earned his Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in industrial engineering from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, and his B.S. in industrial design from the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Dr. Lee is president of the Ergonomics Society in Taiwan, a board member of the Chinese Institute of Industrial Engineering, and a member of the China Sport Mdical Society. He has published more than 50 papers, presented his work widely, and holds three patents resulting from his ergonomics design work. Dr. Lee has been recognized as an outstanding researcher by Taiwan’s National Science Council of the Executive Yuan.

Simon Folkard, Ph.D.

The 2004 visiting scholar was Professor Emeritus Simon Folkard, B.Sc., Ph.D., D.Sc. (Lond.), C.Psychol., F.B.Ps.S., a leading authority on problems associated with shift work (particularly fatigue and safety). Focusing his work on the effects of time (i.e., time of day, shift time/duration, time elapsed since last break) on injury risk, he spent three months at the Research Institute collaborating with injury epidemiologists.

Dr. Folkard helped to incorporate temporal factors into current Research Institute projects, including various epidemiological investigations on traumatic injuries in the U.S. and China. Working with Institute researchers, he analyzed various international data sets that provide information for estimating risk over different features of shift systems (i.e., type of shift and number of successive shifts). From these data, they began developing a Risk Index to predict injury risks associated with long work hours. A paper describing a preliminary version of the Index was published in Chronobiology International and was presented as a keynote talk at a national health and safety conference. Following his departure, Dr. Folkard maintained a relationship with the Research Institute and continued to investigate additional shiftwork components, such as circadian rhythms and sleep.

Most recently, Dr. Folkard was a professor of psychology at the University of Wales, Swansea. At the University, he also served as chair of Cognitive Psychology and founded and directed the Body Rhythms and Shiftwork Centre. Prior to that, he held various scientific positions with the U.K.’s Medical Research Council based at the Universities of Sussex and Sheffield. A past chairman of the Shiftwork Committee of the International Commission on Occupational Health and the founding president of the Working Time Society, he also served on a number of other international committees, including the boards of directors of the International Society for Chronobiology and the European Society for Chronobiology.

Dr. Folkard is a chartered psychologist, a fellow of the British Psychology Society, and has held honorary appointments at a number of research institutions and universities. With more than 200 scientific publications, he has authored book chapters and conference proceedings, and edited and coauthored several books. In 1989, the University of London awarded Dr. Folkard with a D.Sc. degree in recognition of his research contribution to his field. He received Ph.D. and B.Sc. (1st class) degrees in psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London.