November 04, 2014
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell has appointed Theodore K. Courtney, MS, CSP, Director of the Liberty Mutual Research Institute’s Center for Injury Epidemiology, to the Board of Scientific Counselors at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He will begin a three-year term on January 1, 2015.
The 15-member national board advises the director of NIOSH on its research and prevention programs and provides guidance on NIOSH research activities related to developing and evaluating hypotheses, systematically documenting findings, and disseminating results. Specifically, the board evaluates the degree to which the activities of NIOSH conform to those standards of scientific excellence appropriate for federal scientific institutions in accomplishing occupational safety and health objectives; addresses current relevant needs in the fields of occupational safety and health, either alone or in conjunction with other known activities inside and outside of NIOSH and produces its intended results in addressing important occupational safety and health research questions, both in terms of applicability and dissemination of the research findings.
Mr. Courtney has been with the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety (LMRIS) for 21 years advancing through a number of scientific leadership roles and is also currently responsible for extramural research and institutional engagement. His award-winning published research includes original science in slips, trips and falls, epidemiologic methods, injury morbidity/mortality studies of U.S. and international populations, fatigue, sociotechnical systems, risk management, and obesity. Mr. Courtney is also appointed as an instructor in injury, ergonomics, and safety at the Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard University, where he has taught for 20 years.
About Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety
Owned and operated by Liberty Mutual Insurance, the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety is an internationally recognized safety and health research facility. Through laboratory and field-based investigations, the Research Institute seeks to advance scientific knowledge in critical fields of study for the purpose of helping to reduce injuries and disability. Research findings, published in the open, peer reviewed literature, are shared with the worldwide health and safety community and are often used to develop recommendations, guidelines, and interventions to help reduce injury and disability.
