The conference is organized and hosted by the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research. The Organizing Committee consists of the following members:

The Scientific Committee is an international group of researchers in the field of work-related musculoskeletal disorders.The committee advises and supports the organizational committee in all matters relating to the scientific programme and orientation of the conference.

Marianna Agaba Nyangire

Dr. Marianna Agaba Nyangire is an Assistant Lecturer of Occupational Health and Safety in the Department of Disease Control and Environmental Health at Makerere University School of Public Health. She also serves as the ICOH National Secretary for Uganda. Marianna is currently pursuing her PhD studies in Public Health at Makerere University. Her research topic is on ‘Occupational injury prevention among manufacturing industrial production workers in Kampala’s Industrial Business Parks using a Behaviour Based Safety approach’.

Research Interests:

• Behaviour modification in MSD prevention
• Ergonomic hazard management in manufacturing industries
• MSD work place-based rehabilitation programs for injured worker

 

Lope H. Barrero

Professor of Industrial Engineering at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. He has a master degree and a doctoral degree in Environmental Health with an emphasis Industrial Safety and Ergonomics from Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA. He has served as chair of the department of Industrial Engineering (2012-2018) and is currently the dean of the School of Engineering at Javeriana (2018-2024). He was editor of the journal Ingeniería y Universidad – Engineering for Development (Scopus) and have participated in numerous projects in occupational health and ergonomics in agriculture, mining, oil&gas, health industry, construction, among others.

Research interests:

• Injury prevention
• Cognitive ergonomics in the digital world
• Occupational epidemiology

 

Roberta Bonfiglioli

Roberta Bonfiglioli MD is Associate Professor of Occupational Medicine at the University of Bologna and Staff physician at the Unit of Occupational Medicine, Sant’Orsola Malpighi University Hospital in Bologna. Her research interests include diagnosis and prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and peripheral neuropathy, occupational risk factors in the health care setting. More recent research focuses on wearable sensors for assessing biomechanical exposure and human-cobot interaction. Prof. Bonfiglioli has been Chair of the “Scientific Committee on Musculoskeletal Disorders” of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH) for the triennium 2018-2021, Chair of the Emiliano-Romagnola branch of the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine 2019-2024 and currently degree program Director -First Cycle Degree Program in Environment and Workplace Prevention Techniques at the University of Bologna.

 

Pieter Coenen

Dr. Pieter Coenen is senior research at the Department of Public and Occupational Health at Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands. He is human movement scientist and epidemiologist by training. In his research and teaching, Pieter likes to focus on what we can do for workers with physically demanding jobs to live healthy working lives.  

Research interests:

• Epidemiological research on etiology and impact of WRMSDs
• Prevention of WRMSDs
• Interventions return to work after WRMSDs

 

Alexis Descatha

Alexis Descatha is Professor of Occupational Health in France (Paris, now Angers ). His research focuses on the epidemiology of work disorders, musculoskeletal and other chronic diseases. In addition to his clinical duties (emergency toxicology at CHU Angers), he is involved of developing epidemiological research at Ester team (Irset Lab, Inserm Univ Angers). He is the editor in chief of Archives des maladies professionnelles et de l’environnement (Elsevier, in French).He is also collaborating with USA, and was appointed Clinical Professor of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention at Hofstra/Northwell, NY.

research interests:

• Job Exposure Matrices (JEM) for exposure evaluation
• Systematic review and level of evidence
• Health And Safety Workforces

 

Emma Irvin

Emma Irvin is the director of Research Operations at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), where she oversees research planning, research operations, information systems and the internal library. She also has an adjunct appointment with the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto. Irvin also oversees the Evidence Synthesis Program at IWH, one of the Institute's key research programs. Her research focuses on the methodology and conduct of literature reviews, from scoping to systematic. She teaches systematic review methods in a number of forums.

Research Interests:

• Evidence syntheses
• Evidence to practice
• Workplace studies

 

Paul Kuijer 

Paul Kuijer works at the Department of Public and Occupational Health at the Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In his research, teaching, and patient care, he tries to enhance work-integrating care and prevention among workers with musculoskeletal disorders in physically demanding jobs. 

Research interests:

• Work-integrating care and prevention
• Workers with knee and hip osteoarthritis and low back pain
• Occupational disease assessments

 

Tessy Luger

Tessy Luger is head of the “Work Physiology Laboratory” as part of the research unit “Work-related Exposures – Work Design” of the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. She received her PhD in Human Movement Sciences in 2016 from the VU University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Research interests:

• Load change design including work breaks in (repetitive) physical work
• Understanding (individual) risks and intervention responses by physiological and biomechanical parameters
• Exoskeletons for supporting physical work

 

Pascal Madeleine

Pascal Madeleine is a professor in Sports and Ergonomics at the Faculty of Medicine at Aalborg University, Denmark. He holds a PhD and DSc from Aalborg University. He is currently the head of the graduate school at the Faculty of Medicine.

Research interests:

• Individualized interventions targeting the musculoskeletal system
• Exoskeletons for sustainable physical activity
• Biomechanical field assessments using wearables

 

Okullo Robert Obuku

Dr. Okullo Robert Obuku is an Occupational Medical Practitioner at Work Health Consult Limited, a private company that provides occupational health services to various organizations and companies in the energy, service, transport and manufacturing sectors in Uganda. He obtained his postgraduate diploma in Occupational Health from the University of Cape Town (UCT).

Research interests:

• Work-related musculoskeletal disorders and rehabilitation
• Occupational health effects in Call Centres
• Mental ability and demands in the workplace

 

Monika A. Rieger

Monika A. Rieger is head and medical director of the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany, and professor for occupational and social medicine at the University of Tübingen, Germany. She is a medical doctor and occupational health physician by training. In 2019, Monika A. Rieger was awarded the Joseph-Rutenfranz-Medaille by the German Society for Occupational and Environmental Medicine for her scientific work in the field of work physiology.

Research interests:

• Evidence-based occupational health with focus on work-related musculoskeletal and psychosocial stress and strain 
  
• Health services research with focus on work ability and work participation
• Professional identity and competencies of occupational health physicians

 

Esther Rind

Esther Rind is head of the research unit ‘Health Care for People of Working Age’ at the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. She received her Ph.D. in 2012 from the University of East Anglia, School of Environmental Sciences, UK. She is currently pursuing her postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in ‘occupational health services research’ at the Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany. 

Research interests:

• Determinants of worker health and well-being
• Work-related psychosocial demands, stressors and resources
• Reducing social and health inequalities

 

Divya Srinivasan

Dr. Divya Srinivasan is a Professor of Industrial Engineering and BioEngineering at Clemson University in USA. She directs the occupational biomechanics and physical ergonomics laboratories at Clemson. Her research is broadly focused on assessing risk factors for work-related MSDs, and evaluating interventions targeted to improve human health and performance in occupational settings. Her current work spans across several domains of work health and safety, including basic biomechanical assessments of the neck-shoulder, low-back, and lower-limb regions in diverse occupational tasks; effects of neuromuscular impairments on movement control; muscle loading and performance; and mixed-methods evaluations of benefits and risks of emerging robotics technologies such as exoskeletons.

 

Benjamin Steinhilber

Benjamin Steinhilber is head of the research unit ‘Work-related Exposures – Work Design’ of the Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine and Health Services Research, University Hospital Tübingen, Germany. He received his PhD in Sports Science in 2013 from the Technical University of Chemnitz, Germany and his postdoctoral qualification (habilitation) in work physiology and ergonomics in 2020 from the Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany.

Research interests:

• Health hazards due to prolonged standing at work
• Exoskeletons for supporting physical work
• Load changes and their influence on physical strain

 

Grace Szeto

Prof. Szeto is the Acting Dean, School of Medical & Health Sciences and Programme Leader of BSc. (Physiotherapy) in Tung Wah College, Hong Kong. She has been actively involved in research on ergonomics and biomechanics for over thirty years.

Research interests:

• Motor control mechanisms for neck pain
• Maladaptive posture and muscle activity in office workers and smartphone users
• Biofeedback interventions vs exercise interventions for neck pain

 

Maurizio Trippolini

Dr. Maurizio Trippolini is lecturer and scientist at the Department of Health Professions of the Bern University of Applied Sciences and works in the Insurance Competence Center of the AEH Corporate Health Experts in Bern, Switzerland. He leads the research unit “Work Disability Prevention” which focuses on research on

evaluation of and interventions for workers with musculoskeletal injury in compensable settings. He was trained as physiotherapist (2000) and holds a Ph.D. (2014) in medical sciences from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Groningen in The Netherlands. He is board member of Swiss Insurance Medicine (SIM). Dr. Trippolini brings a broad professional experience as a rehabilitation clinician, research scientist, educator, and health care leader. Dr. Trippolini studied and worked in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United States. 

Research and clinical interests:

• Work capacity evaluation measures
• Interventions for injured workers in compensable settings

 

Henk F van der Molen

Henk F van der Molen is a human movement scientist / epidemiologist and has a PhD regarding implementation of ergonomic measures, MSc in epidemiology, BAA in physical therapy. He is working as chair of the section clinical occupational medicine & occupational diseases, head of the Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases and principal investigator at the department of Public and Occupational Health, all part of the Amsterdam UMC.

Research interests:

• Occupationial epidemiology
• Prevention of work-related diseases
• Etiology of occupational diseases