Maria Chiara Leva

Dr Maria Chiara Leva serves as a Senior Lecturer within the Faculty of Sciences and Health at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), specifically in the Department of Food Science & Environmental Health. She concurrently holds a visiting lecturer position for Risk Assessment and Safety Management in Trinity College Dublin's School of Engineering, while maintaining associated Principal Investigator roles at TU Dublin's Science and Technology in Advanced Manufacturing research centre and Trinity's Centre for Innovative Human Systems.

Her research program centers on Human Factors, Human Reliability Analysis, Human Machine Interface Design, Safety Management Systems, and Safety Culture, with over 60 publications spanning operational risk assessment and safety engineering applications. Dr Leva's work demonstrates consistent evolution from foundational human reliability modeling toward integrated safety management frameworks, with recent publications emphasizing real-time workload monitoring, risk intelligence systems, and cross-industry applications in manufacturing and process safety. Her research bridges theoretical human factors principles with practical implementation in high-risk operational environments.

Dr Leva leads significant industry-academic initiatives including the spin-out company 'Tosca Human Factors Solutions', which originated from an EU project she directed as Principal Investigator. Her leadership extends to professional societies where she co-chairs the European Safety and Reliability Association's Human Factors technical committee and previously chaired the Irish Ergonomics Society. She also co-founded the annual Symposium on Human Mental Workload, now in its third iteration.

Scientific Awards

• Female Founder Competitive Start Fund (National Digital Research Centre and Enterprise Ireland, 2016)

Dr Leva has secured substantial research funding through EU projects and national grants, establishing her campus company as a conduit for translating academic research into industry solutions. Her advisory role in Tosca Human Factors Solutions demonstrates successful commercialization of academic expertise, while her ongoing research collaborations with manufacturing and process safety sectors highlight practical impact. She actively mentors through her academic positions and symposium organization, fostering next-generation researchers in human factors engineering.

Her work operates within the interdisciplinary ecosystem of TU Dublin's Food Science & Environmental Health department and Trinity's engineering research centres, focusing on human-system integration challenges across food safety, industrial manufacturing, and critical infrastructure sectors.