ACGIH® will honor its 2017 Awards recipients at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHce) held June 4-7, 2017 in Seattle, Washington.  Each year, ACGIH® honors individuals and/or groups who have made significant contributions to the profession through their leadership and dedication. This year’s awardees join that distinguished list.

Herbert E. Stokinger Award Recipient: John Cocker, PhD

The Herbert E. Stokinger Award is given each year to an individual who has made a significant contribution in the broad field of industrial and environmental toxicology.

Dr. Cocker is a Fellow at the UK Health & Safety Laboratory. He has 43 years of experience in biological monitoring and over 100 peer-reviewed publications. In 1973, he began working for the UK Employment Medical Advisory Service analyzing blood samples for lead. In 1974, the laboratory became the Occupational Medicine and Hygiene Laboratory, part of the newly formed UK Health & Safety Executive. Dr. Cocker was awarded an MSc in General Biochemistry from the University of London in 1976.

After a period in the drug metabolism department of a pharmaceutical company, Dr. Cocker returned to the Occupational Medicine and Hygiene Laboratory to research the metabolism and elimination of industrial aromatic amines and was awarded a PhD from the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London in 1988. From then until his partial retirement in 2013 he led a biological monitoring team of 7-9 graduates and postgraduates developing and applying new biological monitoring methods, conducting volunteer and workplace studies.

Dr. Cocker became a member of ACGIH® in 2000 and joined the Biological Exposure Indices (BEI®) Committee. He has made many contributions in that capacity. In 2015 Dr. Cocker was appointed to the European Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits. He is also a member of the British Occupational Hygiene Society and an occasional advisor to the World Health Organization. Dr. Cocker is an assistant editor for the Annals of Work Exposures and Health (formerly the Annals of Occupational Hygiene) and a passionate advocate of biological monitoring.

Dr. Cocker’s contributions have earned him the Herbert E. Stokinger Award.

John J. Bloomfield Award Recipient: Lucinette Alvarado, MS, CIH

The John J. Bloomfield Award is presented to a young industrial hygienist who pursues the problem of occupational health hazards primarily by doing fieldwork.

Mrs. Alvarado earned a Bachelor’s degree in General Sciences and a Master’s degree in Sciences of Industrial Hygiene, both acquired at the University of Puerto Rico. She was born and raised in Bayamón, Puerto Rico and moved to the United States in 2010.

Mrs. Alvarado is a board certified industrial hygienist in comprehensive practice with experience in the chemical, manufacturing, steel and pharmaceutical industries. She currently works as an industrial hygienist in the Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs group at Covestro LLC in Pittsburgh, PA. Her responsibilities include: conducting industrial hygiene surveys and safe use and handling presentations at customer facilities; interpreting industrial hygiene monitoring results; and making recommendations to customers. Prior to joining Covestro LLC, Mrs. Alvarado was the Manager of Industrial Hygiene Services at AM Health and Safety, Inc. in Pittsburgh, PA. As the Manager of Industrial Hygiene Services, she performed consulting work for clients in the United States and internationally. She has experience developing and overseeing implementation of occupational health and safety training programs in a variety of industrial settings, assessing ventilation systems and conducting indoor air quality (IAQ) investigations.p>

Mrs. Alvarado is a member of ACGIH® and AIHA. She serves as a member of the ACGIH® Industrial Ventilation Committee and is currently working on a project to provide an industrial ventilation course for the Latin American community. She brings her passion to this project and hopes to help ACGIH® successfully launch this course in Latin America in the coming years. The industrial ventilation course for Latin America would be located in the Southern Hemisphere as a part of ACGIH®’s outreach program. As the Director of Communications at the AIHA Minority Special Interest Group (SIG), Mrs. Alvarado provides information to Minority SIG members about activities of the Minority SIG and/or issues pertaining to the objectives of the Minority SIG. The communications committee is responsible for publishing and distributing a quarterly newsletter.

As a young industrial hygienist, Mrs. Alvarado has made significant contributions to the field and is expected to continue as a leader in environmental health and safety and to represent Latin American occupational health and safety professionals.

Meritorious Achievement Award Recipient: J. Torey Nalbone, PhD, CIH

The Meritorious Achievement Award recognizes members of ACGIH® who have made an outstanding, long-term contribution to the progress of occupational health and environmental hygiene. First presented in 1957, it is the organization’s oldest award. It has been given to individuals for singular achievement and to groups for collective accomplishment.

Dr. Nalbone is Associate Professor and Chair of the Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Construction Management at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Dr. Nalbone has a long history of service to ACGIH®. He first became a member of ACGIH® in 1986. In the 1990s and 2000s he served as Chair of the Agricultural Safety & Health and Bioaerosols Committees. He became a member of the ACGIH® Board of Directors in 2012 and served as its Chair in 2014 and 2015. After coming off the Board of Directors, Dr. Nalbone joined the Industrial Ventilation Committee and is the current and founding Chair of the ACGIH® Communication, Education and Outreach (CEO) Committee. 

Dr. Nalbone has been board certified in Industrial Hygiene since 1993. He had the honor of serving as Chair of the American Board of Industrial Hygiene from 2010–2012.

Dr. Nalbone is a member of numerous professional associations including Diplomat of the Academy of Industrial Hygiene; Associate Member of the American Society of Civil Engineering; Member of the International Society for Exposure Science; Affiliate Member of the International Occupational Hygiene Association; Member of the Air and Waste Management Association, formerly the Air Pollution Control Association; Member of AIHA and its Gulf Coast and North Texas Local Sections; and Full Member of the American Society of Testing Materials. Dr. Nalbone has given many conference presentations, workshops and training courses and has authored papers and book chapters on a wide range of occupational and environmental health topics. Over the last eight years he has been dedicated to education programs and their improvement in IH education and currently serves on the Applied Science Accreditation Commission of ABET.  He is currently serving as the Vice Chair of Operations.

Dr. Nalbone’s dedication and service to the occupational health and environmental hygiene profession, and his commitment to ACGIH®’s mission render him a worthy recipient of the Meritorious Achievement Award.

William Steiger Memorial Award Recipient: U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown

The William Steiger Memorial Award honors individuals from the social/political sphere whose efforts have contributed to advancements in occupational health and safety.

Since January of 2007, Senator Sherrod Brown has been a champion of middle-class families in the Senate. He has held more than 300 community roundtables across Ohio’s 88 counties with students, local leaders and business owners, entrepreneurs and educators, workers, and families to find ways to strengthen our economy.

In the Senate, Senator Brown has led the fight to support government agencies that promote workplace safety. He has led his colleagues in pushing for full funding for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and has supported legislation to expand the number of workers OSHA covers and update its enforcement measures.

Senator Brown also secured $110 million in federal resources for Cincinnati’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) campus. He repeatedly pressed the Obama Administration to prioritize funding for this important agency, and the resources he secured will help NIOSH, which employs nearly 550 Ohioans, consolidate its Cincinnati research facilities into one central location to improve and enhance scientific collaboration. These are critical investments for workers and workplace safety.

Prior to serving in the United States Senate, Senator Brown served as a United States Representative for the 13th District of Ohio, Ohio’s Secretary of State, a member of the Ohio General Assembly, and has taught in Ohio’s public schools and at The Ohio State University.

ACGIH® is pleased to honor Senator Brown as the recipient of this year’s William Steiger Memorial Award.

Robert T. Hughes Memorial Award Recipient: Thomas Godbey

The Robert T. Hughes Memorial Award was recently established to honor Mr. Hughes, who passed away in late 2014. Robert T. “Bob” Hughes joined the Industrial Ventilation Committee in 1976. He served as Chair of the Committee for 11 years before stepping down in 2001, though he remained dedicated and active on the Committee until his death. This award, established by the ACGIH® Board of Directors, recognizes outstanding individuals in the field of industrial ventilation.

Mr. Godbey retired from the Donaldson Company, Inc., where he was a Senior Applications Engineer in the Industrial Air Filtration Group and Engineering Consulting Manager. His areas of expertise included fabric filtration, filtration of high temperature air with chemistry, explosion venting, and process integration, including over 40 years in the dust collection industry.   

Mr. Godbey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Kentucky in 1967. He has served on the Industrial Ventilation Committee as a Consultant since 2016.

Mr. Godbey has been affiliated with numerous organizations, including ASHRAE TC 5.4, American Filtration Society, NFPA, Association of Iron and Steel Technology, American Ceramic Society, Portland Cement Association, GEAPS, and American Foundryman’s Society (former Chair of Clean Air Committee). He has been an instructor for Industrial Ventilation Conferences at Michigan State University, North Carolina State University, UNLV, UAB, and the University of Connecticut for over 40 years. Mr. Godbey has authored articles for numerous professional and trade journals and lectured at many trade events and conferences.

Mr. Godbey has made significant contributions to the field of industrial ventilation and ACGIH® is pleased to honor Mr. Godbey as the recipient of this year’s Hughes Memorial Award.

ACGIH® is a 501(c)(3) charitable scientific organization that advances occupational and environmental health. ACGIH® is one of the industry’s leading publications resources, with approximately 400 titles relative to occupational and environmental health and safety, including the renowned TLVs® and BEIs®. For more information, visit the ACGIH® website at www.acgih.org or call our Customer Service Representatives at 513-742-2020.