A Rockhampton Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) expert has been invited to address India’s top scientists at the 94th Indian Science Congress in January, 2007.

CQU’s senior OH&S lecturer Yvonne Toft has been invited to give a keynote address in the medical section of the Congress, in addition to a public presentation for up to 1000 people.

Ms Toft is among just a small contingent of international scientists invited to present at the Congress.

The Congress is the biggest scientific meeting in India, which is inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India. This event is the key mechanism for science policy development for the Indian Government.

Providing evidence from CQU research projects to the Indian science sector, Ms Toft will discuss transdisciplinarity – teams working between, across and beyond disciplinary boundaries in a seamless manner – as a way of promoting mutual learning and gaining a future’s perspective to complex problems facing today’s world.

In a public presentation, Ms Toft will discuss how design and management issues can affect the high accident statistics caused by ‘human error’ in work places.

The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training, has provided financial support for these presentations.

Photo: Yvonne Toft.