Recipients of the 2023 W. Kent and Billie F. Anger Impact Awards for Research

The Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences has named the recipients of the prestigious W. Kent and Billie F. Anger Impact Awards for Research. Professor Emily (Yueng-hsiang) Huang, Ph.D. is the recipient of the Impact Award for Applied Research. Associate Professor Saurabh Thosar, Ph.D. received the impact award Impact Award for Basic/Clinical Research. 

The Impact Awards recognize Institute faculty for pursuing, conducting, and disseminating research that has the potential for positive impacts on workers in Oregon and beyond. Recipients of the awards receive a $2,500 honorarium.  

To receive the applied science award, nominees must have conducted research that produced practical changes to improve safety, health, or well-being in working people demonstrated in or derived from published work. To receive the basic/clinical sciences, nominees must have conducted research that produces discoveries about biological mechanisms, functions, or clinical practice/treatment. The recipients are nominated by their colleagues and selected by a jury of peers based on the significance and quality of the research. 

“The Kent and Billie Anger Impact Awards for Research recognize the outstanding contributions of our faculty members to occupational health sciences” said Dr. Steven Shea, Director of the Institute. “Doctors Huang and Thosar are among the top researchers in their fields. Their work has resulted in tangible outcomes. Dr Huang is improving safety and well-being within organizations and Dr. Thosar is expanding our knowledge of how the internal body clock affects our physiology and pathophysiology, which has relevance to understanding why adverse cardiovascular events occur more frequently in the morning than at other times of day or night.” 

Support for the Institute Impact Awards for Research comes from W. Kent and Billie F. Anger. Dr. Anger is an Emeritus Professor and former Associate Director of Applied Research at the Institute. OccHealthSci thanks Kent and Billie for their generous contributions to the Impact Awards and their commitment to recognizing the quality and utility of research produced by faculty at the Institute. 

Emily Huang, Ph.D. - Impact Award for Applied Research

Professor Emily Huang, Ph.D., has made significant contributions to the applied research mission of the Institute. Professor Huang’s impacts are evident from her research publications and extend to her significant interface with organizations within the community in developing and validating workplace climate scales (Safety Climate; Respectful Workplace Climate; and a TWH Climate Scale). Dr. Huang is deeply committed to the practical impact of her lab’s workplace climate scale research. Dr. Huang’s work has had a significant impact, particularly in the state of Oregon. Dr. Huang has implemented the Safety Climate Scale with multiple construction companies throughout Oregon, gaining a reputation as an industry expert. Additionally, Dr. Huang was recruited to join the Board of Scientific Counselors at National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as a consultant for the Safety Culture Project at OSHA, and she serves as a standing member of the “Safety and Occupational Health Study Section” at NIOSH. In addition, recent recognition of her laboratory includes two awards: The Valerie Palmer Global Health Neurology Diversity Research award, and the Third World Medical Research Foundation award. Dr. Huang’s broad impact has produced practical changes to improve safety, health and well-being for working people in Oregon and beyond. 

Saurabh Thosar, Ph.D. - Impact Award for Basic/Clinical Research 

Associate Professor Saurabh Thosar, Ph.D. has made significant contributions to the basic/clinical research missions of the Institute. Specifically, Dr. Thosar has made broad contributions to the scientific understanding of how endogenous circadian systems and routine behaviors, including sleep, exercise, and physical inactivity, affect cardiovascular health in humans. These contributions are evident is Dr. Thosar’s strong record of publication in 2023, including two highly impactful studies: “Resting coronary flow drives the daily pattern in coronary flow reserve in patients with chest pain without obstructive epicardial stenosis” published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine  and "Endogenous Circadian System Increases Capacity for Enhanced Coronary Microvascular Function in the Morning" published in Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. This work is rooted in his studies of the impact of sedentary behavior on vascular health, in which Thosar discovered that prolonged sitting impairs vascular endothelial function, which can be mitigated by simple, but critical interventions. Building on this work, Thosar and his team studied the circadian rhythms of blood flow in the human heart in relation to critical medical observations that adverse cardiovascular events greatly increase in the morning. Through this work, Dr. Thosar demonstrated that the internal circadian system improves the response of blood flow through the heart in healthy people at this vulnerable time of day. Dr. Thosar has demonstrated through this work that he is extremely adept at garnering the interests and investments of time of other investigators and expanding the scope and impact of his research beyond his specific expertise and training. 

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Researchers at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences are committed to improving the workforce’s safety, health, and well-being. We achieve this aim by pursuing new knowledge and a greater understanding of the issues facing workers here in Oregon and beyond and translating research discoveries into practical solutions. The W. Kent and Billie F. Anger Impact Awards for Applied and Basic/Clinical Research recognize our outstanding faculty members and their contributions to the occupational sciences. Please join us in congratulating Impact Award recipients Professor Huang and Associate Professor Thosar.