ACGIH® will honor its 2014 awards recipients at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) held May 31-June 5, 2014 in San Antonio, Texas. Each year, ACGIH® honors individuals and/or groups who have made significant contributions to the profession through their leadership and dedication.
Herbert E. Stokinger Award Recipient: Franklin E. Mirer, PhD, CIH
The Herbert E. Stokinger Award is given each year to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the broad field of industrial and environmental toxicology.
Dr. Mirer is a toxicologist and certified industrial hygienist. His primary scientific interest is exposure and risk assessment in the occupational environment, and regulatory policy. He also has studied particulate air pollution in the urban environment. Dr. Mirer has been Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health in the Urban Public Health Program at Hunter College of the City University of New York since 2006. He retired as Director of the UAW Health and Safety Department after 31 years of service. At the UAW, he participated in every round of auto contract negotiations from 1976 until his retirement. As a result of those negotiations, the General Motors health and safety agreement recognizes the ACGIH® TLVs® as the corporation’s occupational exposure limits. Dr. Mirer most recently served on the CDC National Conversation on Chemical Exposures and Health Leadership Council and Scientific Understanding Work Group, the IOM Framework Committee to Review NIOSH Research Programs and Evaluation Committee for the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation Program; and IARC Working Groups for Monographs 101 and 89. Previously, he served on the OSHA Metalworking Fluid Standards Advisory Committee; the NIOSH National Occupational Health Research Agenda liaison committee; the Institute of Medicine Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences Research and Training; the National Academy of Sciences Committees on Institutional Means for Risk Assessment and Risk Assessment Methodology; and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Toxicology Program. Dr. Mirer received the Spirit of Detroit Award from the Detroit City Council and the President’s Award for Health and Safety from Ford Motor Company, among other honors. He is a Fellow of the Collegium Ramazzini.
John J. Bloomfield Award Recipient: Catherine A. Hovde, CIH, CSP
The John J. Bloomfield Award is presented to a young industrial hygienist who pursues the problem of occupational health hazards primarily by doing fieldwork, and who demonstrates significant contribution to the profession.
Ms. Hovde received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from St. Olaf College in 2003, and a Master of Science degree in Industrial Hygiene from University of Minnesota School of Public Health in 2006. During her graduate program, she received funding from the Pilot Projects Research Training Program of the Midwest Center for Occupational Safety and Health at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health to conduct research on welding fume generation. The research was subsequently published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. She is a certified industrial hygienist and certified safety professional.
Since graduating, Ms. Hovde has served as an IH and EHS professional in facilities and regionally for 3M and Caterpillar. In those positions, she worked with employees, engineers and other team members to understand operations and evaluate potential exposures. She worked collaboratively to develop and implement practical controls. Ms. Hovde also completed an international assignment based in Germany as a divisional EHS manager for a global division of Caterpillar. In this role, she worked to integrate several newly acquired companies with all legal requirements and Caterpillar standards. In addition, she oversaw her German EHS team through ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications. Ms. Hovde is currently the Enterprise Industrial Hygiene Manager for Caterpillar. This entails reinvigorating the industrial hygiene strategy and developing the technical and leadership competencies throughout the enterprise.
Ms. Hovde is also active with the global IH professional community. She has served as a mentor at the School of Public Health and through AIHA’s mentoring program, held leadership positions in her local AIHA section and the Students and Early Career Professionals Committee, and is a member of the Permanent Conference Committee and International Affairs Committee. She has arranged, moderated, and spoken in several roundtables at AIHce and led the first Unsession at AIHce 2013.
Meritorious Achievement Award Recipient: Beverly S. Cohen, PhD
The Meritorious Achievement Award recognizes members of ACGIH® who have made an outstanding, long-term contribution to the progress of occupational and environmental hygiene. First presented in 1957, it is the organization’s oldest award. It has been given to individuals for singular achievement and to groups for collective accomplishment.
Dr. Cohen has contributed to the field of environmental and occupational health through her research in inhalation exposure and dosimetry, aerosol measurements, and environmental exposure. She has served on numerous national and international expert advisory committees, editorial and review boards of professional journals, and as an officer and director of professional societies. As Professor of Environmental Medicine at New York University’s School of Medicine, she taught and mentored young scientists, and participated in many scientific and administrative programs of the medical center.
She has authored over 100 scientific publications on research topics that include gas and particle deposition in tracheobronchial airways of humans and experimental animals with special attention to charged and neutral sub-micrometer sized particles, measurement of mixed phase airborne contaminants and sub-micrometer ambient acid aerosol, factors which bias air sampling measurements used to evaluate worker exposure to aerosols and to volatile organic contaminants, and health effects of air transportation.
Dr. Cohen was an editor of two editions of Air Sampling Instruments, and is a co-author (with M. Lippmann, and R.B. Schlesinger) of the text Environmental Health Science: Recognition, Evaluation and Control of Chemical and Physical Health Hazards. She was an Associate Editor of the journal Aerosol Science and Technology from 1996-2002, and has served on the Editorial Boards of ERC-Outreach (1985-1990), Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (1989-2003) and currently the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.
Some of her advisory committee service included the DOE/ORAU Advisory Committee on Former Beryllium Workers, Rocky Flats Beryllium Health Surveillance Study (1999-2004), the Science Advisory Panel for the Western Canada Study on Animal and Human Health Effects Associated with Exposure to Flare Emissions (2000-2009), and the NIH/NIOSH Safety and Occupational Health Study Section (1992-1996) and various other short term NIH study sections.
Dr. Cohen has been a member of ACGIH® since 1980, serving as Chair in 2007. In addition to her service on the Board, she served as Chair of the Air Sampling Instruments Committee for 10 years. Over the years, she has arranged, chaired, and presented scientific reports at many sessions and symposia at AIHce. She directed several PDCs and was Conference Chair for the First International Symposium on Air Sampling Instrument Performance, an effort she initiated to focus attention on instrument performance criteria. She was also an active member of the AIHA Aerosol Technology Committee for 15 years, with terms as Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary.
William Steiger Memorial Award Recipient: Tom O’Connor, MPH
The William Steiger Memorial Award honors individuals from the social/political sphere whose efforts have contributed to advancements in occupational safety and health.
Dr. O’Connor is the Executive Director of the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, the umbrella organization for 18 state and local Coalitions on Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) groups. He has 25 years of experience as an advocate for workers’ health and safety. He also coordinates the national policy advocacy efforts of Protecting Workers Alliance, a broad-based group of worker health and safety advocates.
Dr. O’Connor played a leading role in the founding of the National COSH organization in 2003 and has been active in the leadership of the organization since that time. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Project. Dr. O’Connor has written extensively on issues relating to immigrant workers and has presented at numerous conferences of labor unions, health professionals, and worker advocates over the years. He has a B.A. degree in History from Duke University and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Dr. O’Connor has dedicated himself to the profession throughout his career. He served as a member of the following: North Carolina OSHA Advisory Board (1996-2001); Advisory Board of the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health Resource Center (2001-present); Advisory Board of the Doctoral Program in Health Services Research in Occupational Safety and Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2000-2006); and various grant review committees for the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences (2005-2009).
ACGIH® is a member-based organization that advances occupational and environmental health. ACGIH® is one of the industry’s leading publications resources, with approximately 400 titles relative to occupational and environmental health and safety, including the renowned TLVs® and BEIs®. For more information, visit the ACGIH® website at www.acgih.org or call 513-742-2020.
