Dr. Joseph Affum, a distinguished researcher in road safety, recently announced his retirement from Australia’s NTRO (an iRAP Centre of Excellence and formerly known as ARRB).

Joseph’s work and his support for network risk assessments would be familiar to those involved in the early development of iRAP and its Australasian versions – AusRAP and KiwiRAP – since their first applications.  Commencing at ARRB in 2005, Joseph worked alongside iRAP’s CEO, Rob McInerney in the ARRB Brisbane office before Rob took up his role at iRAP.  His work at ARRB saw Joseph involved in the development of NetRisk, an Australian precursor to iRAP, and contribution to research and analysis work that is a part of the iRAP model. 

Joseph gained invaluable experience in the application of iRAP through project work across Australia’s road network (as AusRAP), in New Zealand (as KiwiRAP), and in Malaysia, Vietnam, and most recently in Sri Lanka, where Joseph passed on his experience to the next generation of iRAP advocates by leading the training of engineers from Sri Lanka’s Road Development Authority, helping them to attain their accreditation in iRAP coding, and analysis and reporting.

iRAP’s CEO Rob McInerney congratulated Joseph on this contribution – ‘‘Dr Joseph Affum was a 5-star researcher who helped shape the iRAP models that are now in use in over 125 countries worldwide. His passion for road safety and his rigor and attention to detail were pivotal in creating the original iRAP models, piloting their use and scaling their application in Australia and around the region. His life-saving contribution to the RAP family and partners worldwide will last forever.”

The iRAP team wishes Joseph all the best on the next chapter of his life.