Membership

The Meritorious Achievement Award is given to members of ACGIH^® who have made outstanding, long-term contributions to the field of occupational health and industrial hygiene. The recipient of this year's Meritorious Achievement Award is Gyan S. Rajhans, ROH, CIH, PE.

Mr. Rajhans completed his B.Sc. Honors in Mining Engineering in India and was awarded a George C. Bateman Fellowship for his Post-Graduate studies at Queen's University, Canada where he earned his Master of Science (Engineering) degree. From early 1968 until mid 2000 Mr. Rajhans served and contributed to the Province of Ontario in the field of Health and Safety as Chief Industrial Hygienist and District Manager in the Ministry of Labour. Since his retirement, Mr. Rajhans has established his own consulting firm, GSR & Associates Inc.

Mr. Rajhans also held the post of Adjunct Full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Toronto. In 1987, he was appointed as a consultant to the United Nations Development Program providing consultation to Asian countries. In 1997, he was elected Chair of ACGIH^®. He was also appointed as Co-Chair of the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition, Montreal in 1987 and Toronto in 1999. He has been a member of the ACGIH^® Industrial Ventilation Committee since 1974 and now serves as its Chair. He is a past director of ABIH.

Mr. Rajhans is the principal author for four reference books and has co-authored 68 scientific and technical papers. He is most celebrated for his 1976 work, which demonstrated the link between carbon dioxide levels in indoor air as an indicator of inadequate fresh air supply.

Mr. Rajhans has received several honors for his contributions in the field of Health and Safety, including the Amethyst Award for outstanding achievement by an Ontario public servant, OHAO's Hugh Nelson Award of Excellence and OHS Magazine's Award of Excellence.

In 2005, an international organization of global repute and influence, India International Friendship Society honored Mr. Rajhans with the "Bharat Gaurav Award (Pride of India Award)".

Mr. Rajhans' dedication and service to the occupational health and industrial hygiene profession, and his commitment to ACGIH^®'s mission render him a worthy recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award. The Meritorious Achievement Award will be presented at the ACGIH^® Membership Reception and Annual Meeting of the Membership on Sunday, May 31, 2009 in Toronto, Canada.

Previous Award Recipients

• 1957 — Members of the Industrial Ventilation Committee, past and present
• 1958 — Members of the Committee on Threshold Limits, past and present
• 1959 — Lester M. Petrie, M.D.
• 1960 — Thomas F. Mancuso, M.D.
• 1961 — Hervey B. Elkins, Ph.D., CIH
• 1962 — No award presented
• 1963 — George Hama
• 1964 — Victoria Trasko
• 1965 — Herbert E. Stokinger, Ph.D.
• 1966 — John C. Soet
• 1967 — Andrew D. Hosey, CIH
• 1968 — William G. Fredrick, Sc.D.
• 1969 — John J. Bloomfield
• 1970 — Catherine Chambers, R.N.
• 1971 — E. Lynn Schall
• 1972 — Marcus M. Key, M.D.
• 1973 — Warren A. Cook
• 1974 — U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency
• 1975 — Edward Baier, CIH
• 1976 — Henry N. Doyle, CIH
• 1977 — Members of the Physical Agents Threshold Limit Values Committee, past and present
• 1978 — James C. Barrett
• 1979 — Charles D. "Pete" Yaffe, CIH
• 1980 — Duncan A. Holaday, CIH
• 1981 — Christine Einert, M.D.
• 1982 — Dohrman H. Byers, CIH
• 1983 — Mary Louise Brown
• 1984 — Irving H. Davis, CIH
• 1985 — Harry J. Ettinger, CIH
• 1986 — Herbert H. Jones, CIH
• 1987 — William D. Wagner
• 1988 — William D. Kelley
• 1989 — Vera Fiserova-Bergerova Thomas, Ph.D.
• 1990 — Vernon E. Rose, Dr.PH, CIH
• 1991 — Robert L. Harris, Ph.D.
• 1992 — Charles E. Adkins, CIH
• 1993 — Jeffrey S. Lee, Ph.D., CIH
• 1994 — R. Jerry Sherwood, S.M., CIH, CEng (UK)
• 1995 — Howard E. Ayer, CIH
• 1996 — John Doull, Ph.D., M.D.
• 1997 — William D. Wagner
• 1998 — Sidney Case Soderholm, Ph.D., and James H. Vincent, Ph.D., DSc.
• 1999 — Dave K. Verma, Ph.D., CIH, ROH
• 2000 — William Burgess
• 2001 — Morton Corn, Ph.D., CSP
• 2002 — Chemical Substances - Threshold Limit Values (CS-TLV^®) Committee (past and present members) and the Industrial Hygiene Section of the Hazard Evaluations and Technical Assistance Branch (HETAB) of NIOSH (past and present members)
• 2003 — Scott E. Merkle, CIH
• 2004 — Morton Lippmann, Ph.D., CIH
• 2005 — Robert T. Hughes, MSME, PE
• 2006 — Patrick N. Breysse, Ph.D., CIH
• 2007 — Lisa M. Brosseau, ScD, CIH
• 2008 — Michael S. Morgan, Sc.D., CIH