Rate My Professor Leonard Brown

Leonard D. Brown is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Community, Environment, and Policy at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, University of Arizona, where he also serves as Director of the Mining Safety and Health Training Resource Center. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Arizona in 2015, focusing his dissertation on the design, evaluation, and extension of serious games for training in mine safety. Brown received his B.S. in Computer Science, summa cum laude, from West Virginia University in 1999. With over 20 years of experience, his career includes roles in the gaming industry as Software Engineer at Sony Online Entertainment (2009-2010) and Octopi Game Labs (2006), and founding Desert Saber, LLC (2017-2019) to commercialize his research through Tech Launch Arizona. At the University of Arizona, he has held positions such as Research Scientist at the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources (2016-2020), Research Associate in the Department of Mining and Geological Engineering (2010-2014), Research Assistant in the 3DVIS Laboratory (2004-2006), and Instructor in the School of Information since 2019, teaching courses like Introduction to Human Computer Interaction and Algorithms for Games.

Brown's research centers on human-computer interaction, visualization, gamification, virtual reality, and serious games to enhance health and safety training, particularly in the mining industry. He leads teams developing innovative serious games for hazard recognition, situational awareness, and emergency response, adopted by dozens of mining companies nationwide and reaching thousands of workers, resulting in reported reductions in lost-time injuries. As key personnel, he has contributed to securing and executing over $10 million in competitive grants, including as Principal Investigator on Mine Safety and Health Administration projects such as "Online Community Framework: Improving Evaluation of Training and Assessment of Health and Safety Outcomes for Contractors and Small Mine Operators" ($140,000, 2021-2022) and Co-Principal Investigator on the Western Mining Safety and Health Training Resource Center ($1.458 million, 2020-2023). Notable publications include "Toward a Systems Framework Coupling Safety Culture, Risk Perception, and Hazards Recognition for the Mining Industry" (2022), "Gamification of Hazard Recognition in Mining with a Tabletop Card Game" (2021), "Improving Safety Training through Gamification: An Analysis of Gaming Attributes and Design Prototypes" (2019), "Magic Lenses for Augmented Virtual Environments" (2006), and "SCAPE: Supporting Stereoscopic Collaboration in Augmented and Projective Environments" (2004). He has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed papers and delivered more than 50 presentations. Brown received Recognition for Teaching Excellence from the UA Department of Computer Science in Fall 2008.