Welcome to UW ErgoLab
About Our Organization The University of Washington (UW) Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences (DEOHS) has been conducting applied occupational health and safety research in Washington State since the 1960s. As a part of this department, the Ergonomics Team has studied and characterized physical occupational exposures across many sectors and in many contexts including: orchard workers in the agricultural sector, computer input device and workstation design, and vibration exposure and remediation in semi-trucks, transit buses, flat-bed trucks, and forklifts.
Our Mission The mission of the UW DEOHS is to identify agents in the environment and the work place that affect human health, to elucidate their mechanisms, to develop strategies for confronting their effects, and to share the knowledge obtained. Within this greater context, our research team works towards advancing the science of ergonomics and human factors through field and laboratory exposure assessment investigations with the goal of protecting working populations from the development of preventable musculoskeletal disorders.
Our Achievement The UW DEOHS has an excellent track record of applied research on occupational safety and health hazards. Within the department, our research team, led by Dr. Pete Johnson, a respected expert in the field of exposure assessment and whole body vibration, has published 15 peer reviewed manuscripts and conference proceedings summarizing the results of our research to the scientific community (See Annotated Bibliography). Through this process, we have fostered partnerships with King County Metro Transit, Boeing, Bose Corporation, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, and Logitech, among others, and worked together to improve products, tools and workplaces through investigation and innovation.