Mining Feature: NIOSH's Jacob Carr Receives Presidential Award

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

On May 4, 2016, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division’s Jacob Carr was honored along with 104 others as recipients of this year’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award honors federally funded scientists and engineers at the forefront of discovery taking on some of the most difficult challenges in the world of research.

Mr. Carr’s work on the safety of proximity detection systems for continuous mining machines and intelligent lockout/tagout for stationary machinery is critical to the field of mining, as hundreds of injuries a year—some of them fatal—are associated with continuous mining machines.

Mr. Carr is the first-ever recipient of a PECASE award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

“It was extraordinary and such an incredible honor,” Mr. Carr said. “Being at the ceremony and hearing about all the other awardees and what they received awards for, it was humbling to be in their company.”

The following day, Mr. Carr and the other winners of this year’s PECASE award were greeted at the White House by President Barack Obama, as well as a special guest: Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.

“He must have been meeting with the President and happened to be there, so Mr. Obama brought him along and they both talked for a little while,” Mr. Carr said. “When the photo opp was done, we all walked past both of them and we got to shake both their hands, so I got a twofer.”

Following the White House visit, Mr. Carr and his wife visited the National Museum of Natural History and the Air and Space Museum with their two children. Mr. Carr is currently completing doctoral work at Penn State University in the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering.