About

The Auburn University Center for Occupational Safety, Ergonomics, and Injury Prevention was formally established in 2017.  The program has been part of the Deep South Center for Occupational Health and Safety, a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) education and research center, since 1982.  Throughout this period, Auburn's Occupational, Safety and Ergonomics (OSE) program has been recognized for excellence in research, training, and outreach in occupational safety, ergonomics and injury prevention.  The research and training conducted by our faculty and students is consistently awarded for excellence and has been highlighted in numerous scientific journals and professional conferences.

Auburn's OSE program continues to remain at the forefront of the safety and ergonomics field with one of the strongest faculties in the nation,  Recently, Auburn OSE researchers made a seminal research advance in understanding the cause of musculoskeletal disorders (e.g., low back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome).  This international award-winning advance led to the development of two new risk assessment tools for ergonomic injuries:

• LiFFT for assessment of back pain risk due to manual material handling tasks
• DUET for assessment of upper extremity disorder risk.

These tools were developed for ease of use by safety and health practitioners, and have been able to predict injury risk by estimating the cumulative load experienced by workers throughout the workday.

Our faculty and students have performed safety and ergonomics research and/or consulting for the U.S. automotive industry, the U.S. Department of Defense, NIOSH, the mining industry, the food processing industry, construction, forestry, health care, and numerous other industries and agencies.