Presenter

Merrick Kossack serves as a Senior Research Director for Emergo by UL’s Human Factors Research & Design (HFR&D) team. For over 25 years, Merrick has helped companies develop processes and strategies to address their human factors engineering needs, particularly for complex and high-risk systems. His areas of expertise include integrating human factors engineering into established design and development processes, conducting complex usability studies, and advising on human factors strategy to satisfy regulatory needs. In addition, he helps clients develop their use-related risk analyses, human factors reports, and other key documents required for regulatory submissions.

Merrick has developed and taught courses on human factors in medical device development and delivered numerous presentations on the subject. He is a contributing author to the book Applied Human Factors in Medical Device Design (2019). Merrick is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) Human Factors Engineering subcommittee as well as IEC TC 62/SC 62A JWG4, both responsible for the creation of human-factors-related standards and guidance. He is also a member of the AAMI faculty staff responsible for teaching their Human Factors for Medical Devices course. Merrick earned an M.S. degree in Human-Machine Systems Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Illinois. In 2020, Merrick was inducted into UL’s William Henry Merrill Society as a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff.