Benden named incoming co-chair for Applied Ergonomic Conference

The Applied Ergonomics Conference (AEC) announced that Mark E. Benden, PhD, CPE, head of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the Texas A&M School of Public Health, has been invited to join the AEC leadership team as the 2021 incoming conference co-chair. He will first serve two years in the incoming role, then two as chair and two additional years as outgoing chair for the largest industrial ergonomic conference in the world.

The conference is presented by the Applied Ergonomics Society within the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. The mission of AEC is to create a conference where attendees gather to share global knowledge of applied ergonomics principles to reduce risk for workplace injuries, drive efficiency, optimize business profitability and expand the science and research behind ergonomics. Benden was selected based on his industry experience and academic research as the director of the Ergonomics Center at Texas A&M University. For the past two decades, Benden has been a volunteer on multiple conference planning committees and has been a frequent presenter along with many of his students and colleagues from Texas A&M.

His 30-year career in occupational safety and ergonomics has produced multiple processes, tools and devices to ease injury and illness risk. He served as an officer of three faculty-led startups: PositiveMotion LLC, The Wellbeing Code and Stand2Learn LLC, which was acquired by Vari, a Dallas-area manufacturer of active office products.

Benden is a senior member of the National Academy of Inventors and holds 22 U.S. patents with several more pending. The expected lifetime economic impact of his designs exceeds $1 billion.