John Senders

John W. Senders (1920 – Feb 12, 2019) was a professor of industrial engineering who did research on safety and human error. He founded Canada's Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), introduced the visual occlusion paradigm, and organized the first conference on human error, which came to be known as Clambake I.

In 2011, Senders won an Ig Nobel Prize in the field of public safety for conducting experiments driving a car while intermittently blindfolded.

In 2010, the Human Factors Interest Group of the University of Toronto held a symposium of Applied Human Factors Research in Senders's honor. Attendees included Abigail Sellen, Neville Moray (remotely), Shuman Zhai, Don Norman, and Jean Zu.

In 2008, Senders was awarded the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) Pioneer Award by the University of Toronto.

Senders founded Canada's Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), and received an award from ISMP in 2001.

In 1983, a multidisciplinary conference on human error was held at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy, funded by NATO and the Rockefeller Foundation. This conference came to be known as Clambake II. Senders, along with Neville Moray, published a summary of the workshop.

Senders, along with his wife Ann Chrichton-Harris, organized a meeting in Columbia Falls, Maine in July 1980 of researchers who were interested in studying human error. They originally submitted a proposal for funding the conference to the National Science Foundation, but the proposal was rejected. They decided to invite participants despite the lack of funding, inviting the attendees to attend a clambake. Twenty-five people attended, from the United States and the United Kingdom. This meeting came to be known as the "Clambake Conference" and Clambake I.

In 1973, Senders took a position as a visiting professor in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering at the University of Toronto. He took a permanent position at the university in 1974 where he worked until he retired in 1985, when he became a Professor Emeritus.

In 1973, Senders was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

From 1965 to 1972, Senders, was a lecturer and senior research associate in psychology at Brandeis University.

In 1959, Senders was a lecturer in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota.

Senders received an A.B. in experimental psychology from Harvard College in 1948, and a Ph.D. in quantitative psychology from Tilburg University in 1983.