ABSTRACT
Michael Quinlan’s enormously productive academic career has developed over three stages. In each, he has pioneered new fields whether as sole author/teacher or as part of small, closely-knit and mostly multidisciplinary teams. We explain how Michael’s time at the University of Sydney (from 1971), as undergraduate, doctoral student and tutor in industrial relations (IR), encouraged his focus on big, challenging phenomena that affect workers in profound ways. His doctoral thesis examined migrant experiences of work and IR in Australia, but he has always been interested in IR history and policy. Nonetheless, he soon transferred his attention to occupational health and safety (OHS), his main and enduring passion as researcher, teacher and policy analyst. At Griffith University (from 1981), he greatly developed this involvement with OHS. With the times propitious, and as a leader in research and education, he went beyond uncovering the IR of workplace hazard causation to highlight systems for preventively managing and regulating OHS. In this, Michael has played a nationally and internationally crucial role in bringing OHS and IR together. This impact has grown substantially since Michael joined the University of New South Wales, Sydney in 1994. The chapter concludes with summaries of this book’s other chapters.
