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Contents: The Awards | Past Recipients | Ron Cumming | Ken Provins | Alan Welford | John Lane | David Ferguson | Gitte Lindgaard
The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia presents nine national Awards that reflect outstanding achievement by individuals or groups for service to the Society and the human factors and ergonomics profession as well as to the research and application of human factors and ergonomics in Australia. Five of the Awards are named after Founders of the Society who have been Presidents and Fellows of the Society.
The Executive of CHISIG, the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group of the Society, nominate a recipient for the CHISIG Medal. CHISIG also has an Award for the best paper at their annual OZCHI conference that is named in honour of Gitte Lindgaard.
The HFESA Board and the Annual Conference Committee nominate the Society Medal and the Ron Cumming Memorial Lecturer, respectively. Members of the HFESA are invited to nominate eligible people for the remaining Awards. The David Ferguson Award requires the support and endorsement of the student’s supervisor.
The Honours and Awards Committee of the HFESA processes and endorses the Awards. All are based on merit and may not be bestowed every year.
FELLOWS:
Adams, Neil
Blewett, Verna
Brown, David
Bullock, Margaret
Cameron, Colin
Cumming, Ron
Ferguson, David
Gibson, Ian
Gladstones, William
Hall, Roger
Hoffmann, Errol
Lindgaard, Gitte
McPhee, Barbara
Oxenburgh, Maurice
Patkin, Michael
Provins, Ken
Stevenson, Michael
Triggs, Thomas
Welford, Alan
Further information about Ron Cumming and his contribution to the HFESA is available at About Ron Cumming
Further information about Alan Welford and his contribution to the HFESA is available at About Alan Welford
Further information about John Lane and his contribution to the HFESA is available at About John Lane
Further information about David Ferguson and his contribution to the HFESA is available at About David Ferguson
Further information about Gitte Lindgaard and her contribution to the HFESA is available at About Gitte Lindgaard
Ron Cumming Memorial Lecture
The following individuals have delivered the Ron Cumming Memorial Lecture:
1990 Michael O’Connell
1991 David Meister
1992 Peter Vulcan
1993 Meredith Wallace
1994 Jim Joy 1995 Bill Green
1996 Gitte Lindgaard
1997 Roger Hall
1998 John Lane
1999 Verna Blewett
2000 Tom Triggs
2001 Maurice Oxenburgh
2002 Michael Patkin
2003 Lynn McAtamney
2004 Robin Burgess-Limerick
2005 Wendy McDonald
2006 Barbara McPhee
2007 Mark Dohrmann
Society Medal
Past recipients of the Society Medal have been:
1991 Alan Howie
1992 Phil Taylor
1993 Richard Rawling
1994 Jim Whiting
1995 Margaret Bullock
1996 not awarded
1997 Mike Stevenson
1998 Jim Carmichael
1999 Christine Aickin
2000 Jeffrey Frith
2001 David Caple
2002 Roger Hall
2003 Robin Burgess-Limerick
2004 Shirleyann Gibbs
2005 Barbara McPhee
2006 Verna Blewett
2007 Andrea Shaw
Ken Provins Award
Past recipients of the Ken Provins Award have been:
2000 Robin-Burgess-Limerick
2001 Stephen Ward
2002 Leon Straker, Andrew Briggs and Alison Greig
2003 Jennifer Long and Carmen Sui
2004 Mark Hennessy
2005 Not presented
2007 Sonia Ranelli, Leon Straker & Anne Smith
Alan Welford Award
Past recipients of the Alan Welford Award have been:
2001 Jennifer Long and Roger Hall
2002 Roger Hall
2003 Leon Straker, Andrew Briggs and Alison Greig
2004 Leon Straker
2005 Catherine Cook, Robin Burgess-Limerick and Sophia Papalia
John Lane Award
Past recipients of the John Lane Award have been:
2001 Verna Blewett and Jonathan Talbot
2002 Monash University Accident Research Centre
2003 Not presented
2004 Robin Burgess-Limerick, Roxanne Egeskov, Clare Pollock and Leon Straker
2005 Not presented
David Ferguson Award
Past recipients of the David Ferguson Award have been:
2002 Glen Lichtwark
2003 Grace Szeto
2004 Valerie O’Keefe
2005 Not presented
2007 Veronica Thorsson
Ronald William Cumming graduated B.E. (Aero) in 1942 from the University of Sydney, one of the first batch of aeronautical engineering graduates.
Ron immediately went to work at the newly established Aeronautical Research Laboratories. His field was applied aerodynamics. In the immediate post-war years he was head of the group working on the Griffith suction wing, and had some exciting times as flight observer in a suction wing glider. During much of this time, besides research, he had managerial responsibility for the wind tunnel. He spent 1949 in England, at the national Physical Laboratory.
In 1956, ARL had been persuaded that it should undertake research into operational aspects of aviation. This was not too closely defined but was evidently intended to include operational research and what we would now call ergonomics. Ron was chosen to lead this new venture, called the Human Engineering Group.
The first operational problem he selected was the then-common, undershoot landing accident, which plagued large aircraft. This project eventually led to the T-VASIS landing aid, now in use in this and other pacific countries, incidentally winner of the 1971 Prince Phillip Prize in Industrial Design. This work was recognized also by the award, in 1974 of the Diploma d’Honneur of the Federation Aeronutique Internationale. An early paper foreshadowed the head-up display now standard on most military and some airline aircraft. It was about this time that Ron decided that piloting experience would provide necessary insights into operational problems and he undertook training leading to a commercial pilot licence.
Ron had been fortunate in being able to make a reconnaissance of human factors activity in the USA. In 1959 he set off – prophetically on the first Qantas 707 flight – to study with Paul Fitts at the University of Michigan. This graduate program was much sought after and Ron was the first non-psychologist to be accepted. After a year of very hard work, he returned with an AM and a wide knowledge of experimental psychology. This year’s work was to be the springboard for a second and third career.
On his return in 1960, Ron soon found himself associated with a small though never precisely defined group of professionals, from a number of disciplines, who were concerned with getting scientific method applied to the rapidly worsening problem of road accidents. We need to recall that, in those days, road safety was thought to be a matter of devising slogans. He became a founding member, and indeed founding Chairman of the Human Factors Committee of the new Australian Road Research board. He came to carry out or supervise a good deal of research for the Board over a number of years. Later, in a period of eleven years, he spent much time and effort on the successive committees which drafted the safety design rules for motor vehicles.
Upon the dispersion of the ARL, Ron moved to a Readership in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. In this new situation, one of his commitments was the exposure of students to the elements of ergonomics – students not only from engineering but also from science, architecture, psychology and optometry. Work continued on road research projects. One of his theoretical innovations was the demonstration of a hysteresis effect in serial tasks. The ‘centre of excellence’ proved to be portable and re-established itself at Melbourne.
His time at Melbourne continued until 1971, when, in a major shift in his career, he moved to a chair of psychology at Monash. Again transportation research was carried out: a major project, for the Department of Transport, concerned driver behaviour in relation to accidents. New inter-disciplinary courses were developed, a notably successful one being decision-making in groups and society. He twice served as chairman of the Department of Psychology for extended periods.
From Monash he made a final change in direction – to academic management. From 1979 to 1982 he was Director of the Chisholm Institute of Technology. He gave strong support to the cause of engineering at CIT, then under some threat, and stimulated the introduction of areas in Industrial Engineering, Robotics and Digital Technology. His most difficult task, more than simply managerial, concerned the amalgamation of CIT and Frankston State College.
His final appointment was as Visiting Professor in the University of Melbourne. Not surprisingly, Ron had many extra-curricular interests. He was the first Australian Fellow of the (American) Human Factors Society. He was a founding member and early President (later a Fellow) of the HFESA. He served on the Council of RMIT, on the Advisory Council of CSIRO and on a number of other bodies. He was appointed, in 1973, as one of the three Commissioners of the regrettably short-lived Road Safety and Standards Authority.
Ron was a man of broad interests and great ability. He had achievements in technological research in two distinct fields, in teaching, again in different disciplines, and in academic administration. His energy and enthusiasm inspired all who had the good fortune to work with him. Ron took pride in being elected to the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and in the Doctorate of Engineering (honoris causa) conferred on him, in 1983, by the University of Melbourne.
See also: about the Cumming Memorial Medal and Lecture
Born London, July 8, 1923. Educated at Wimbledon C.S., Brasenose College, Oxford;
War Service 1942-1946 in R.A.F. as Pilot & Flying Instructor;
Member, Physiological Research Unit at Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, 1949-1952;
Member, Medical Research Council Unit in Department of Human Anatomy, Oxford, 1952-1962;
Reader in Psychology, University of Adelaide, 1962-1968;
Professor of Psychology, Australian National University, 1968-1975;
Deputy Vice-chancellor, University of Adelaide, 1975-1980;
University Professor until retirement in 1983, then appointed Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, Adelaide University until moving to Brisbane in 1989;
Honorary Research Consultant, University of Queensland, 1990-1999.
Organizer of the first Ergonomics Conference in Adelaide in 1964 and Secretary of the Steering Committee leading to the formation of the Ergonomics Society of Australia & New Zealand in 1966. Elected one of the first four fellows of the Society, and President from 1968 to 1970.
See also: about the Ken Provins Award
Professor Alan Traviss Welford, ScD (Camb), MA (Prin.), FASSA, 1968-1979, (Emeritus Professor 1979).
Alan was educated at University College School, London and at St John’s College, Cambridge. He started work as a research student at Cambridge and ended as adjunct Professor at the University of Hawaii. Following about 30 years in Cambridge, he was Professor of Psychology for a decade at the University of Adelaide.
Alan’s contribution to ergonomics was in the area of performance, skill and ageing and its impact on industry. He was interested in measuring performance at manipulatory tasks by recording time and errors in total and in parts or aspects of tasks. At the Nuffield Unit in Cambridge, where Alan worked, researchers were also interested in what the subject said and the way they approached the task as well as the performance measures. At the time, this anecdotal evidence was considered contrary to proper and rigorous science.
For further information: Singleton. W. (1997) A T Welford – a commemorative review. Ergonomics, vol 40, no 2; 125-140.
See also: about the Alan Welford Award
In 1962, as John Glenn orbited Australia in Friendship 7, Dr John Lane monitored his heartbeat, blood pressure and other vital signs. He was one of the Australian aeromedical monitors for the United States’ manned space flight program and performed this important tasks for John Glenn’s first flight and the other astronauts in both the Mercury and Gemini space programs.
John Lane is recognised as the father of aviation safety in Australia and as a pioneer in road safety. His work in both fields was highly respected and acclaimed internationally.
He received his early education at Scots College in Sydney where he was dux of the school. He graduated with honours in medicine from the University of Sydney in 1941, and then joined the RAAF.
As a medical officer in the RAAF, John developed his interest in aviation medicine and the problems of high altitude flying. He was involved with the Catalina aircraft crews.
In 1948, John was appointed the inaugural Director of Aviation Medicine in the Commonwealth Department of Civil Aviation. He continued to develop the scientific approach and expanding contribution to air safety of the Branch until his retirement in 1983. He represented Australia at various meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organisation over a period of 25 years. During the 1950’s, John was also involved in the development at the Aeronautical Research Laboratories, of the "T-vasis" visual safe aircraft landing system.
In 1957, John was awarded a Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship, which enabled him to qualify for a Master of Public Health Degree at Harvard University in the United States. This provided the foundation for much of the excellent epidemiological research which he was to undertake during the next 40 years. In 1960 he was trained as a space surgeon by the US Airforce and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration which led to his appointment as Australian aeromedical monitor in the manned space flight program.
John was a founding member of the Aviation Medical Society of Australia and New Zealand and of the Ergonomics Society of Australia, being its second President. He was very active in both Societies' activities throughout his career.
In addition to his duties in the Department of Civil Aviation, John developed an interest in applying a scientific approach to road safety. In 1961, he became a foundation member of the Human Factors Committee of the Australian Road Research Board. During the 18 years of his membership, the committee sponsored much of Australia's early road safety research. From 1961 to 1975 he was a member of the Traffic Injury Committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council.
After his retirement as Director of Aviation Medicine, John became a Principal Research Fellow at the Monash University Accident Research Centre, where he continued his research and acted as a mentor to many younger researchers.
In 1985 John became a Member of the Order of Australia for services to aviation medicine and road safety standards.
See also: about the John Lane Award
In 1976 David Ferguson became the first Professor of Occupational Health in Australia and much earlier (in the 1960’s) he was the first in the field to take up ergonomics and to promote it as an integral part of workers’ health and safety programs.
David was the founding father of the application of ergonomics to OHS in Australia. He was one of the founders of the ESA in the mid 1960s and helped to develop a strong professional and scientific image for ergonomics during its early years in Australia.
David did pioneering research on repetition injuries in factory workers and in telegraphists and published papers on this work in the early 1970’s.
David was responsible for the introduction of lectures in ergonomics at the University of Sydney and also participated in and encouraged the development of ergonomics courses at the University of NSW and Worksafe Australia.
See also: about the David Ferguson Award
Professor Gitte Lindgaard has been the Chair in User-Centred Design and Director of the Human Oriented Technology Lab at Carleton University in Ottawa since January 2000. In this role she is overseeing a unique teaching and research program, in a university with one of the longest traditions of engagement in user-centred design. (Further information on the HOT Lab can be obtained from www.carleton.ca/hotlab/)
With a Ph.D. from Monash University, and professional experience in the Telstra Research Labs, Professor Lindgaard has a particular awareness of the Australian context, and has made substantial contributions to the study of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) in Australia.
Professor Lindgaard’s current research interests are in:
She has published extensively in these areas.
Further details are available at: www.carleton.ca/~glindgaa/
See also: about the Gitte Lindgaard Award
