2020 Meritorious Achievement Awardee

The Meritorious Achievement Award is given to members of ACGIH^® who have made outstanding, long-term contributions to the field of occupational health and environmental hygiene. The recipient of this year’s Meritorious Achievement Award is Thomas J. Armstrong, PhD, CIH.

Dr. Armstrong is a Professor of Industrial and Engineering and of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. He holds degrees in Aerospace Engineering, Industrial Health and Industrial and Operations Engineering, Industrial Health and Physiology all from the University of Michigan. The major research focus of his 40+ research career has been and still is concerned with biomechanical aspects of work. Much of his research involved the development of tools analyzing work activities and studying mechanical and physiological tissue responses to repetitive loads.  He has collaborated with outstanding engineers, physicians, and students to conduct both laboratory and field studies to describe the dose-response relationship between work patterns and work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the upper limb, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, hand-wrist tendonitis, and non-specific pain. Field studies have taken his team to a range of sites, such as auto parts and vehicle assembly, food production, medical services, and office work, here and abroad to identify and describe common musculoskeletal disorder risk factors.

Dr. Armstrong is a Certified Industrial Hygienist  and Certified Professional Ergonomist. He is a fellow in the American Industrial Hygiene Association, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, the International Ergonomics Association, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is a long-standing member of ACGIH^®. He is particularly proud of his work as a member of the ACGIH Physical Agents Committee to help develop the original TLVs^® related to ergonomics and musculoskeletal disorders. He is grateful for his early acquaintance with the late Warren Cook, who planted the seed for a TLV concerned work-related musculoskeletal disorders, for his many collaborators and students and his many colleagues from around the world who helped to make these TLVs possible.

Dr. Armstrong continues to teach courses concerned with biomechanics and work design, develop web tools, and conduct research related to medical procedures and climbing, and musculoskeletal disorders.

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, MD
• 1960 — Thomas F. Mancuso, MD
• 1961 — Hervey B. Elkins, PhD, CIH
• 1962 — No award presented
• 1963 — George Hama
• 1964 — Victoria Trasko
• 1965 — Herbert E. Stokinger, PhD
• 1966 — John C. Soet
• 1967 — Andrew D. Hosey, CIH
• 1968 — William G. Fredrick, ScD
• 1969 — John J. Bloomfield
• 1970 — Catherine Chambers, RN
• 1971 — E. Lynn Schall
• 1972 — Marcus M. Key, MD
• 1973 — Warren A. Cook
• 1974 — U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency
• 1975 — Edward Baier, CIH
• 1976 — Henry N. Doyle, CIH
• 1977 — Members of the Threshold Limit Values for Physical Agents (TLV-PA) Committee (past and present)
• 1978 — James C. Barrett
• 1979 — Charles D. “Pete” Yaffe, CIH
• 1980 — Duncan A. Holaday, CIH
• 1981 — Christine Einert, MD
• 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, PhD
• 1990 — Vernon E. Rose, DrPH, CIH
• 1991 — Robert L. Harris, PhD
• 1992 — Charles E. Adkins, CIH
• 1993 — Jeffrey S. Lee, PhD, CIH
• 1994 — R. Jerry Sherwood, SM, CIH, CEng (UK)
• 1995 — Howard E. Ayer, CIH
• 1996 — John Doull, PhD, MD
• 1997 — William D. Wagner
• 1998 — Sidney Case Soderholm, PhD, and James H. Vincent, PhD, DSc
• 1999 — Dave K. Verma, PhD, CIH, ROH
• 2000 — William Burgess
• 2001 — Morton Corn, Ph.D., CSP
• 2002 — Threshold Limit Values for Chemical Substances (TLV-CS) 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, PhD, CIH
• 2005 — Robert T. Hughes, MSME, PE
• 2006 — Patrick N. Breysse, PhD, CIH
• 2007 — Lisa M. Brosseau, ScD, CIH
• 2008 — Michael S. Morgan, ScD, CIH
• 2009 — Gyan S. Rajhans, ROH, CIH, PE
• 2010 — Patricia Stewart, PhD, CIH
• 2011 — Jimmy L. Perkins, PhD, CIH
• 2012 — John M. Dement, PhD, CIH
• 2013 — Carol Rice, PhD, CIH
• 2014 — Beverly S. Cohen, PhD
• 2015 — D. Jeff Burton, MS, PE
• 2016 — Stephen J. Reynolds, PhD, CIH, FAIHA
• 2017 — J. Torey Nalbone, PhD, CIH, FAIHA
• 2018 — Robert F. Herrick, ScD, CIH
• 2019 — Lynn C. O’Donnell, CIH