University of Newcastle Professor Derek Smith has been named winner of the 2009 World Safety Organization (WSO) Concerned Citizen Award by the WSO Awards Committee.

A Professor of Occupational Health and Safety in the School of Health Sciences, Professor Smith is Director of the WorkCover NSW Research Centre of Excellence (WRCE), based at the University's Central Coast campus.

His research encompasses a wide variety of topics, ranging from occupational health and safety issues, public health, tropical medicine, bibliometrics and medical history. Professor Smith holds senior positions on the editorial boards of many international journals, and has a particular interest in collaborative partnerships between occupational health researchers from around the world.

The WSO promotes safety and accident prevention professions and related fields and strives for continuous professional development of and increased benefits for all practitioners in these fields.

The WSO's motto is "Making Safety a Way of Life...Worldwide' and it coordinates functions, activities, operations and related works with other international bodies and organizations. It supports activities of other national and international professional organizations in their attempts to protect people, property, resources and the environment.