ASTM International Committee F08 on Sports Equipment, Playing Surfaces and Facilities has honored Randy Swart, director of the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, Arlington, Virginia, with the Award of Merit and the title of fellow.

The Award of Merit is ASTM’s highest organizational recognition for individual contributions to standards activities. Swart was specifically recognized for his outstanding work in the development of standards within Subcommittee F08.53 on Headgear and Helmets. He has made important contributions to several F08.53 test methods, including ASTM F1446, Test Methods for Equipment and Procedures Used in Evaluating the Performance Characteristics of Protective Headgear, an influential industry standard. A member of ASTM since 1991, Swart has served as F08.53 vice chairman since 1997 and as F08 membership secretary since 2007. He received the F08 William F. Hulse Memorial Award in 2006.

Swart founded the Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, a nonprofit organization that serves as a consumer advocacy program and a technical resource for bicycle helmet information, in 1989. The Institute works to explain the technology of helmets and helmet laws to consumers through its website www.helmets.org, and is the helmet advocacy program of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

Swart holds a bachelor’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

ASTM PR Contact: Erin K. Brennan, Phone: 610-832-9602; ebrennan@astm.org

Release #9625