Health Care Technical Group

2023 Robert L. Wears Early Career Award

HFES Health Care TG Award for Early Career

The Health Care Technical Group (HCTG) is pleased to announce a call for 2023 Robert L. Wears Early Career Award. Each year an HCTG committee grants this prestigious award to one academic and one practitioner that has unique achievements in their early career.

Nominations/applications are accepted until July 31st, 2023, and the two awardees will be announced during the HFES Annual Meeting.

This Award is named in honor of Robert L. "Bob" Wears for his pioneer work in the integration of Human Factors in healthcare. Dr. Wears was an emergency medicine physician who transformed the way investigators conduct patient safety research through theories and methods of Human Factors. Described as both humble and brilliant, Dr. Wears provided mentorship and guidance to both clinicians and Human Factors specialists. Dr. Wears was part of the Health Care Technical Group from its early days. This Award will serve to promote his legacy.

The goal: 

The Robert L. Wears Early Career Award aims to highlight the achievements of academics and practitioners in the first six years from graduation.

An Application Packet (submit documents below as a single PDF file):

1. A nomination letter detailing the academic or practical contribution to Healthcare human factors and ergonomics. The letter should indicate whether the applicant is nominated for the academic or practical track.
2. CV (max. 10 pages)
3. One letter of recommendation

      * Self-nomination is also possible but will require two letters of recommendation.

Eligibility criteria:

●      Six years or less from terminal degree (Degree awarded no earlier than May 2017)

Evaluation criteria:

1. Evidence of excellence in scholarly or practical contribution to Healthcare human factors and ergonomics
2. Research or practical impact
3. Involvement with HFES National Society and local chapters

Review Process:

1. Application/nomination packets are submitted to HCTG Awards Committee Chair (Dr. Changwon Son, changwon.son@ttu.edu) by July 31, 2023.
2. An ad-hoc award committee with 3 independent reviewers is formed.
   - The ad-hoc award committee includes at least one practitioner and one academician.
   - The ad-hoc award committee does not include any HCTG officers.
3. Each reviewer evaluates applications/nominations independently and the ad-hoc award committee discusses and selects awardees via committee meetings.
   - One academician and one practitioner
4. Awardees are notified in September.
5. Awards are presented during the annual HCTG business meeting during 2023 HFES Annual Meeting. 

Please e-mail the application/nomination packet to Dr. Changwon Son (changwon.son@ttu.edu). Also, feel free to email Dr. Changwon Son for any questions regarding this Award.

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Changwon Son, PhD, CSP
Assistant Professor |Industrial, Manufacturing, & Systems Engineering Department
Director | Safety, Human factors, And Resilience Engineering (SHARE) Lab (https://www.thesharelab.org)
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, Texas
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