NEWS FROM IEA 2012
18th WORLD CONGRESS ON ERGONOMICSULAERGO CONGRESS – UNIÃO LATINO-AMERICANA DE
ERGONOMIAABERGO CONGRESS – ASSOCIAÇÃO BRASILEIRA DEERGONOMIANewsletter, March, 2012

Very dear friends,
We would like to thank all of you for attending the 18th World Congress onErgonomics in Recife from 12-16 February. For us it was a great joy to meetyou face-to-face and a great honor to receive some of the world's mostrenowned ergonomists, who shared their professional experience with us andbrought us up-to-date on the latest advances in their areas of expertise. Our
warmest thanks to our keynote speakers Najmedin Meshkati, Elias Apud,
Frida Marina Fisher, Kapila Jayaratne, Dave Moore, Francisco Rebelo,
Waldemar Karwowski, Barbara Silverstein, Kenji Kurakata, Georg Krämer,Jan Dul, Kurt Landau, Kazutaka Kogi and William. S. Marras for theircontributions which did so much to add to the academic excellence of theevent.
We believe we achieved the goals we set ourselves by holding this congress,
the first in Latin America, and by doing so we succeeded in realizing an olddream of Brazilians ergonomists. We managed to put together a high quality
scientific program, which presented the state of the art of ergonomics
today; we had the opportunity to establish new partnerships and strengthen
old ties of friendship; we could depend on the involvement of a motivatedteam of undergraduate and postgraduate students as volunteers, and are sure
this involvement will prompt them to wish to take part in other Congresses

on Ergonomics; in addition, we sought and found significant space in thelocal press, which provided the opportunity for advertising what Ergonomics
is about in newspapers, radio, TV and online media, including blogs andpersonal and institutional websites.
We give special emphasis to the fact that this is the first IEA Congress tohave its proceedings indexed, over six thousand pages, published in Work, A
Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, IOS Press, which is ascientific journal of international renown. All articles can be accessed
directly at http://iospress.metapress.com/content/q66420837m77. The 13
keynote talks will be published later this year in the journal Human Factors.
We were very gratified to learn that our efforts to provide a social programthat emphasized the diversity of the culture of Pernambuco met with yourapproval and played their part in relaxing and entertaining delegates at theend of each heavy day of studies. Our Carnival party held on Feb. 15 at theCachaçaria Carvalheira was an especially fun occasion at which everyone
could sample the carefree spirit and joie de vivre that reigns in Brazil during
the month of February.
***************************OUR APOLOGIES
However, not everything went as we wanted it to. Unfortunately, due torenovation work at the Governor´s Palace, the State governor moved withhis team to the Convention Center of Pernambuco in January 2012, and took
over the rooms originally set aside for the Congress. It was only in
mid-October 2011 that the Local Organizing Committee was officiallyinformed of the problem. The Directorate of the Convention Center ignored
the signed contract and payment that had been made four years before,leaving us up against a vexing situation with only two options: cancel thecongress or build some rooms. Since, by that time, a significant number ofpeople had already registered, and many had already bought air tickets andbooked their hotel, cancelling the conference was not feasible. Nor was it
possible to transfer the event to another location, because they were all fully
booked. Thus, that just left us with the option of building rooms. But it neverentered our minds that this option would cause us so many problems.
We humbly offer our sincere apologizes for any inconvenience. The
problems were also aggravated by the lower than expected number ofregistrations and sponsors, resulting from the global economic crisis, which
led to a substantial cut in the budget for the Congress and the consequentelimination of activities and additional facilities which were rather short on
comfort*****************************CONGRESS CERTIFICATES
We wish to advise you that the certificates of attendance at the congress andthe certificates of participation in various activities of the event (oralpresentation of papers, posters, special sessions, symposia, participation inworkshops and giving talks) are being sent, as from March 4, directly to theemail you provided when you registered for congress. We alert you to thefact that some delegates registered through their companies and did notprovide an email, if this affects you or if you have not received yourcertificate by March 9, please contact the secretariat of the congress<secretary@ iea2012.org>.
*****************************
ANAMARIA DE MORAES
Alas! it was not to be that we could end the 18th World Congress on
Ergonomics on a high note. The passing away of our dear friend Anamariade Moraes, who suffered a heart attack in her hotel room in the earlymorning of Thursday (Feb. 16), deeply shocked all who knew, loved andrespected her as a pioneer of Ergonomics in Brazil. She was a teacher at thePontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, was founder and first
President of the Brazilian Ergonomics Association, participated in several
IEA Congresses and was the First Ergonomics Fellow of IEA in Latin
America. On the afternoon of Wednesday, 15 we had a chat and she told me
how happy she was because the IEA Congress was finally taking place inBrazil. Ergonomics was her greatest passion, and she simply adored taking
part in congresses and conferences on ergonomics. Once she told me shewould die happy if she died during a Congress on Ergonomics. I neverthought she would take this so seriously. Anamaria remains in the memoryof all who are active in Ergonomics in Brazil. No-one will ever surpass her
as the greatest ergonomist our country has produced.
****************************
This is our last newsletter on IEA 2012, so once again, thank you all. Onelast big hug and until 2015, in Australia.

Marcelo Soares
Chair of IEA2012

José Orlando Gomes
Chair of ULAERGO and ABERGO
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