Dr. Nir Keren is an Associate Professor of Occupational Safety in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. His research interests fall into two broad categories: Behavioral Safety and Harnessing Incident Databases to enhance Loss Prevention.

In Behavioral Safety Dr. Keren’s interest is in Safety Decision Making. As a graduate faculty in the Human Computer Interaction program he develops Virtual Reality Applications to research decision making. Among his current studies are modeling the effect of consequence severity on process and choice, the effect of stress on decision making processes among emergency responders, and the effect of safety climate on safety decision making.

In harnessing incident databases Dr. Keren is developing novel applications to support loss prevention efforts. In his research he utilizes publicly available and privately owned incident datasets. Recent works in this area include risk assessment of hazardous material transport, and development of calibration values for equipment failure rates in chemical processes.