Richard Parker’s days revolve around keeping people safe and productive.

The Bioeconomy Science Institute human factors scientist can usually be found on the front line of forestry research, collaborating with people to identify problems in their work environment.

“For example, a forestry company might call us and say ‘people are being injured in this particular situation, can you investigate?’ And we’ll look at what people do, how the work is organised, the equipment they use to try and understand the job and then look at ways to solve the problem, to make the job safer or more productive.

“Sometimes it’s just breaking up someone’s job to make it more interesting.”

Being on the front line can be demanding and dangerous – particularly when working with the Bioeconomy Science Institute’s fire and atmospheric science team – but Richard wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s quite a special thing to connect with people working in demanding industries such as forestry or fire to understand what they do and how you can improve their work experience.”

Being able to connect with people is vital, but forming those relationships isn’t always easy. Richard’s friendly personality and sense of humour helps. “Sometimes you're seen as being sent there by the management. And so people wonder, are you going to make them work faster, or for longer days? But we're focused solely on making the job safer, which means making it more organised. Then it becomes more productive and everyone is happier.”

Career path

Growing up, Richard didn’t know human factors science was a field, but he had a natural attraction to working outside. His journey into human factors began with his hands-on experience working in a logging crew between bouts of university study. This gave him valuable insights into the challenges forestry workers face. This, plus his ability to connect with people, helps him engage with workers.

“You've got to be on the inside,” he says. “I’ve also been fortunate in that I'm in the wildfire group at the Bioeconomy Science Institute and am a volunteer firefighter. Being a firefighter helps when doing human factors work in wildfire, to have that understanding of the issues and possible solutions.”

Richard made quite an impact through his role at Scion before it became part of the Bioeconomy Science Institute – such as designing the striped high-vis shirts used across the industry today and using wearable cameras to work out why experienced tree fallers were more efficient than novices (his PhD topic). He also developed an award-winning robot in collaboration with the University of Canterbury, and a radio-controlled car to inspect under houses after the earthquakes.

Outside work

Richard and his wife Rae have twin daughters in their early 30s. They were brought up in a household strewn with prototypes in various stages of development. They even wore a full suit of armour – for chainsaw cut protection – which Richard says scared the neighbours.

Tinkering with tools is a favourite pastime of his. He spends a lot of time in his home workshop, making prototypes of tools for use in forestry and fire management, and repairing his push bike. “It's always falling apart.”

The bike sports a mudguard Richard made from a 70mm fire hose.

He’s an avid reader and is partway through a book by an American anthropologist who worked in a Hotshot fire crew and wrote about the challenges of modern fire management and the dynamics of a high-performance team. The topic is close to Richard’s heart: he’s a trained firefighter, which gives him firsthand experience of the challenges fire crews face, enabling him to better engage with and support them in the field.

Richard was something of a daredevil in his younger days. He’s skydived 18 times and scuba diving was also a passion. Diving in the Tory Channel in the Marlborough Sounds was a particular highlight because it is, he says, a dynamic environment with lots of currents and mysterious kelp beds.

These days he settles for riding his bike to work (an adrenalin sport in its own right, he jokes), but his thirst for adventure remains and this serves him well in his current work.

Goals for the year

Richard’s biggest goal for the year ahead is to have human factors work integrated into all areas of the Bioeconomy Science Institute. “I think there are things we've done in forestry and fire that we could do in agriculture and horticulture and other areas,” he says. “So there's a lot of opportunity there.”

He’s focused on building new relationships across the organisation, rekindling those from his sheep behaviour study days at Lincoln and maintaining existing ones in Rotorua. He’s honoured, he says, to be featured in this profile series and be surrounded by so many interesting people.

“It’s really good to be highlighting this area of the Bioeconomy Science Institute,” he says. “It’s a little-known area and it’s so important.”