John W. SENDERS

1920 - 2019

PROFESSOR JOHN W. SENDERSDied on February 12, 2019 of complications from pneumonia, two weeks before his 99th birthday. He was a generous man with a huge heart, a polymath, and a stubborn individualist who never stopped teaching; nothing in his long resume was accomplished via traditional pathways. Senders, a pioneer in the scientific study of human error, was once called 'Professor of Everything' by colleagues at the University of Toronto, where he taught from 1973, after previous positions at the University of Minnesota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brandeis University, and the University of California. The founder of Canada's Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), Professor Senders was a pioneer in the field of Human Factors and Engineering Psychology; his seven-decade career - in academia, industrial and military research labs, as a private consultant, and as a globe-trotting lecturer and expert witness - contributed enormously to human safety and well-being. Michael Cohen, President of the ISMP, stated that Senders' work "...saved many thousands of people from medical errors and harm, so they could go on with their families and careers." His groundbreaking work on driving safety led to the Occluded Vision Paradigm, now an International Standard (ISO) essential to instrument panel design in airplane cockpits, nuclear power plants, and automobiles. This research - which involved driving an automobile while intermittently blindfolded - led to an "IgNobel Prize" in 2011, a semi-humorous award he cherished as much as more orthodox recognition from the scientific community. Born on February 26, 1920, to Russian immigrant parents in Cambridge, Massachusetts, John Senders was the youngest of five children. He was a gourmet cook, an expansive host, a spellbinding raconteur, and an unconventional thinker who invariably found unusual and effective approaches to standard problems and situations. He is survived by his wife, Ann Crichton-Harris, of Toronto, by his first wife, Virginia Loftus Senders, of Amherst, Massachusetts, and by five children and nine grandchildren. A more detailed obituary and memorial can be found at www.johnwsenders.net. Memorial contributions may be made to The University of Toronto's "John W. Senders Award for Medical Innovation," a prize of which he was enormously proud. Donations may be made by calling Kristin Philpott at 416-946-7827, or at donate.utoronto.ca/senders.