Facilities
& Resources
Most of the external sites
available for research will be at one of the Program's and faculty collaborating
institutions, as describe above. Begun in 1994, the Liberty Mutual-Harvard
Program in Occupational Safety and Health formalized a collaborative
relationship in research, teaching and service that provides exchange
of faculty, students and technology to advance occupational safety and
health. A number of successful research projects, symposia and conferences
mark the program's initial years, and will continue to support the injury
prevention research-training program. The program has also facilitated
the development of major inter-faculty collaborative research projects,
such as the Case-Crossover Study of Occupational Hand Injury (Sorock
et al., 2001).
Other program faculty members
have similar ties that can result in external research opportunities
for students. Dr. Herrick, for example, has been instrumental in working
with local construction industry and is interested in developing an
epidemiology study of slips trips and falls of construction workers.
Tom Smith working with the California truckers association can expand
the work of JC Chen and examine Low Back pain among truck driver. Ann
Backus' ties with New England Fishing industry will provide opportunity
for student to examine specific risks associated with lobsterman and
other types of small fishing operations. Dr. Perry collaborates with
dairy farming communities in Vermont and Wisconsin on prevention programs
to reduce injury and disease in farmers and their families. These projects
afford several community-based prevention research opportunities for
students.
Program Support from Research Sources
If a collaborating or external
agency offers to host a Program student in a research assistantship
(for doctoral students) or a post-doctoral fellowship, we will ask for
an offsetting financial contribution of approximately $6,000 - $8,000
per year per student from the agency to support the student's research
activities and help supplement the student tuition and stipend funds
that will be available through the NIOSH grant.
All participating institutions
will provide facilities and equipment for the program. The complete
resources of the existing Harvard University ERC and its existing cores,
e.g. Industrial Hygiene and Occupational Nursing, will be available
including classroom facilities, safety and health libraries, computer
equipment, and audiovisual equipment. Similarly, equipment and resources
from the Harvard Injury Research Center as well as the department of
Health and Social Behavior will be available for program students. These
include Health Policy Library and journals. The Liberty Mutual Research
Center of Safety and Health will also be available for Program students.
The Research Center's ten, state-of-the-art, laboratories are dedicated
to the following research areas: biomechanics, cognitive engineering,
driver safety, epidemiology, human-machine interface, tribology (slips,
trips and falls), repetitive work, work physiology, and work systems
designs.
