The University of Kentucky’s Central Appalachian Regional ERC and Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention, Sunshine ERC at the University of South Florida, the Southeastern Coastal Agricultural Center at University of Florida and the North Carolina Occupational Safety and Health ERC at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill partnered with the DSC in planning this event. This unique event brought together over 75 researchers and graduate students from universities across the southeast who shared their research findings in various areas of occupational health and safety and related topics.

Dr. Leena Nylander-French, professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill gave the opening keynote: Biological Monitoring in Exposure Assessment. Dr. Gurumurthy Ramachandran, professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University was the Dillon-Carnahan Keynote Speaker, presenting: Data, Professional Judgement and Models in Exposure Assessment. During the symposium, attendees heard presentations from pilot project recipients at various NIOSH funded centers in the southeast and from other researchers on topics ranging from ergonomics, air sampling and agricultural health and safety to wildland firefighter exposures.

In addition, there were 26 poster presentations by students from UAB, Auburn University, University of Kentucky, Emory University, University of South Florida and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With the success of this year’s collaboration, plans for next year’s event have already begun.