Helen Lingard
Helen Lingard | |
|---|---|
| Born | United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | University of Hong Kong |
| Awards | Australian Research Council Future Fellowship |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Construction, Health and Safety |
| Institutions | RMIT |
| Thesis | Safety in Hong Kong’s construction industry: changing worker behaviour (1995) |
Helen Lingard is a Distinguished Professor at RMIT.[1] She leads RMIT’s Construction Work Health & Safety Research group, which she founded in 2014. She is actively linking her research work with industry, unions and government to create evidence-based tools that protect workers’ health, safety and work–life balance across the global construction sector.[2][3][4][5]
Education
[edit]Lingard earned a B.A. (Hons) in politics from the University of Newcastle (UK) before completing her Ph.D. in Construction Safety at the University of Hong Kong in 1995. She then cut her teeth on headline civil-engineering projects—most notably the Hong Kong International Airport and the record-breaking Tsing Ma Bridge—an experience that ignited her enduring commitment to improving construction workers’ health, safety, and overall wellbeing.[6][7][8]
Career
[edit]Since 2016, Lingard has been a Distinguished Professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology’s School of Property, Construction & Project Management, where she also founded and directs the Construction Work Health & Safety Research group (est. 2014).[9][10] Earlier, she secured an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2009–2013) to pioneer integrated OHS strategies for construction projects. Her academic journey includes roles as Professor and Associate Professor at RMIT (2005–2015), Senior Lecturer and Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Hong Kong. Before entering academia, she built frontline expertise as an OHS Advisor with Costain in Hong Kong and as Principal Consultant with ARK Consulting in Australia. In 2024, Lingard established the Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe) which aims to bring industry leaders and researchers together to deliver pioneering, practice-focused studies that cut deaths, serious injuries and chronic ill-health in Australia’s construction sector. [11]
Awards
[edit]Lingard received multiple national and international awards:
- Australian Research Council Future Fellowship – inaugural building-discipline recipient (2009).[12]
- CIOB Best International Paper, ARCOM Conference (2016) for a participatory-video study on subcontractor safety-rule violations.[13]
- Best Paper Award, Journal of Construction Engineering & Management (ASCE) (2020) for “Safety at the Front Line”.
- RMIT Award for Research Impact (Enterprise) for industry-adopted safety-culture tools.
- Appointed Distinguished Professor – RMIT’s highest academic rank (2016).
Selected works
[edit]- Lingard and Turner, Work Health and Wellbeing in the Construction Industry (Routledge, 2023).[14]
- Lingard, H. & Oswald, D. (2020). “Safety at the Front Line: Social Negotiation of Work and Safety at the Principal Contractor–Subcontractor Interface,” J. Construction Eng. & Mgmt., 146(4).[15]
- Lingard, H., Cooke, T. & Blismas, N. (2013). “Properties of Group Safety Climate in Construction,” Construction Management & Economics, 31(10).[16]
- Lingard, H. (2004). “Work and Family Sources of Burnout in the Australian Engineering Profession,” J. Construction Eng. & Mgmt., 130(2).[17]
References
[edit]- ^ "Helen Lingard". www.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Transforming construction health and safety with SHINe". www.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ Lago, Cristina (2025-01-09). "How tier 1 leaders are addressing construction's mental health crisis". Construction Management. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ Grogan, Ashley (2024-05-07). "Five-day work week to change construction landscape". Inside Construction. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "How to narrow construction's massive wage gap". Australian Financial Review. 2024-03-12. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Helen Lingard". mlsoc.vt.edu. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Dr. Helen Lingard". CSRA. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Helen Lingard". The Conversation. 2015-05-19. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Helen Lingard". www.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Discovery". academics.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Safety and Health Innovation Network (SHINe)". www.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-07-05.
- ^ "Helen Lingard". www.rmit.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "ARCOM | Conferences". www.arcom.ac.uk. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ "Work, Health and Wellbeing in the Construction Industry". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2025-06-28.
- ^ Lingard, Helen; Oswald, David (2020-04-01). "Safety at the Front Line: Social Negotiation of Work and Safety at the Principal Contractor–Subcontractor Interface". Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 146 (4): 04020024. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0001799. ISSN 1943-7862.
- ^ Lingard, Helen Clare; and Blismas, Nick (2010-10-01). "Properties of group safety climate in construction: the development and evaluation of a typology". Construction Management and Economics. 28 (10): 1099–1112. doi:10.1080/01446193.2010.501807. ISSN 0144-6193.
{{cite journal}}:|first2=missing|last2=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Lingard, Helen (2004-04-01). "Work and Family Sources of Burnout in the Australian Engineering Profession: Comparison of Respondents in Dual- and Single-Earner Couples, Parents, and Nonparents". Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 130 (2): 290–298. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2004)130:2(290). ISSN 0733-9364.