Awards and Honors

Established in 1967, the award recognizes a non-U.S. citizen who has made outstanding contributions to the human factors/ergonomics field. Candidates are considered based on the significance of their contributions and their worldwide recognition within and outside the HF/E profession.

Established in 1968, this award recognizes a person who has made exceptional contributions to the education and training of HF/E specialists. Candidates should either be currently or previously engaged in college or university teaching of HF/E material or should have written significant textbooks in the field. The principal criteria for evaluation are the influence that the candidate has had on students and/or how extensively the candidate's work has been used by educators in general. If the criterion for the award is student influence, as many as five testimonials from current or previous students may be submitted in addition to the curriculum vitae or résumé and letters of recommendation. This award is open to all Society members who train or educate and is not restricted to academic educators.

Established in 1968, this award recognizes a person for outstanding contributions to human factors aspects in the broad area of safety. This includes HF/E work that has led to reduced accidents and injuries in such areas as industry, aviation, surface transportation, and consumer products. Candidates' accomplishments should be related to safety or safety training technology as demonstrated by research or application of HF/E principles. Emphasis should be placed on both programmatic and recent contributions to the field of endeavor.

Established in 1969, this award recognizes individuals or groups of individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the conception or design of any product, service, or system that has had a significant impact on users and exemplifies the excellent use of empirical human factors/ergonomics design principles. "Product, service, or system" may include consumer or business products, training systems, communications systems, computing systems, display systems, control systems, highly procedural systems such as the air traffic system, or any combination of one or more people and equipment designed to perform some goal-oriented function. The product, service, or system need not necessarily be extremely large or complex. The essential criteria are that the product, service, or system has achieved operational status and that its conception and design are based on the outstanding application of experimentally determined HF/E design principles.

In addition to the curriculum vitae or résumé and letters of support, other evidence of the success of the design will be accepted, such as testimonials from users' performance evaluations or papers or reports that substantiate the extent to which the submission is based on experimentally derived HF/E design principles.

Established in 1969, the Alphonse Chapanis award is presented to a student or students for outstanding human factors research conducted while enrolled in an appropriate academic program and presented as a paper or poster at the HFES Annual Meeting. Students apply for this award by submitting an application form along with their full proceedings papers to the award committee chair. Short abstracts are not eligible for this award. A cash award of $2,000 along with a certificate are provided to the winner(s). The award application form is made available to accepted authors in May.

Established in 1970, this award honors an individual or groups of individuals for significant efforts to extend or diversify the application of HF/E principles and methods to new areas of endeavor. In addition, candidates must have made effective efforts to encourage the application of HF/E knowledge and techniques in new areas. The field of endeavor should differ from previous military, space, government, or industry-supported work. Candidates will be evaluated on the significance of their effort to society in general, the adequacy of the effort to accomplish intended objectives (e.g., thoroughness of problem analysis, effectiveness of proposed or achieved solutions), and the impact of their effort on the HF/E profession. Nominators shall submit a brief narrative summary (<400 words) describing the innovation that the nominator wishes to emphasize.

Established in 2004, this award recognizes members and nonmembers who engage in significant activities that broaden awareness of the existence of the human factors/ergonomics profession and the benefits it brings to humankind.

Established in 2013, this award provides an award plaque to a member of HFES for demonstrating outstanding contributions to HFES through professional scientific contributions as a young investigator. The Howell award recognizes the talent, creativity, and influence of a singular young researcher. A candidate for the award must be an HFES member currently in good standing within nine years of graduation with a degree in HF/E or related field. The information required to support a candidate's nomination for this award will include a résumé or curriculum vitae and at least two letters of support.

Established in 2013, this award recognizes outstanding contributions to HFES through professional service and outreach activities as a student and early-career professional. The Karsh award recognizes the impact this individual has had on raising the public's awareness of human factors/ergonomics science. A candidate for the award must be an HFES member currently in good standing within seven years of receiving a degree in HF/E or a related field. The information required to support a candidate's nomination for this award will include a résumé or curriculum vitae and at least two letters of support.

HFES may also present the following awards, which are not open for nomination:

• Jerome H. Ely Human Factors Article Award, established in 1966, for the best paper published in the previous year's volume. Individuals and groups of individuals are eligible.
• Best Ergonomics in Design Article Award, established in 1993, for the best article published in the previous year's volume. Individuals and groups of individuals are eligible.
• Best Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making Article Award, established in 2012, for the best article published in the previous year's volume. Individuals and groups of individuals are eligible.
• Best Human Factors in Healthcare Article Award, established in 2023, for the best article published in the previous year's volume. Individuals and groups of individuals are eligible.

The Best Student Paper in Ergonomics in Design Award, sponsored by Dr. Brian Peacock, is an annual award for student work submitted to Ergonomics in Design. HFES urges academicians and their students to consider this unique opportunity and to submit their design work to EID. Brian Peacock Bio.

• The purpose of the award is to recognize excellence in contributions by graduate or undergraduate students in the area of ergonomics in design.
• The award provides a certificate and a total monetary award of $1,000 to a student (or students). The award will be presented at each Annual Meeting during the journal awards session.
• The paper must be the result of work accomplished by the students(s) while enrolled in an appropriate academic curriculum. Co-authors may include faculty or other collaborators provided that the work being submitted is primarily that of the first-author student.
• If the manuscript has multiple authors, individual plaques and/or certificates shall be provided for the winners in recognition of joint authorship or group accomplishment.
• If no suitably qualified candidate has been recognized by the Awards Committee or confirmed by the Executive Council, then that award shall not be given that year.

Established in 1985, this award recognizes individuals whose career-long contributions have brought honor to the profession and the Society. The award was renamed from Arnold M. Small President's Distinguished Service Award to Arnold M. Small and Betty M. Sanders President's Distinguished Service Award in 2021. This award is not open for nominations.

The Human Factors Prize recognizes excellence in HF/E research through a competition in which authors are invited to submit papers on a specific topic for that year. The topic is selected by the editor-in-chief in consultation with a Board of Referees chaired by the immediate past Human Factors editor. This program was not run in 2024 and may be resumed in 2025.

Details about the Human Factors Prize

A number of awards, travel grants and honors are available to students:

• Alphonse Chapanis Award
• Student Presenter Travel Grants 
• Travel Grants for First-Year Graduate Students
• Student Member with Honors Award
• Student Chapter Awards
• Ergonomics in Design Best Student Paper in Ergonomics in Design Award 
• The Bentzi Karsh Early-Career Service Award
• The William C. Howell Young Investigator Award