Established in 2018 to honor and celebrate the life of Dr. Leslie Daniel Maxim, NASBLA is honored to announce the creation of the L. Daniel Maxim Award for Distinguished Service. The L. Daniel Maxim Award recognizes the contributions of those individuals whose efforts advance our understanding of the world we live in through the application of research, analysis and the scientific method. Dr. Maxim effectively used data, reasoning and a lifelong foundation in scientific principles to help explain both the underlying causes of boating accidents, as well as to point us toward potential policy solutions and interventions available from other fields of endeavor including transportation, aviation, engineering and medicine.
In addition to serving in key volunteer leadership roles throughout the recreational boating community, Dr. Maxim served for more than a decade on NASBLA’s Engineering, Reporting and Analysis Committee (ERAC) where he brought his expertise to bear across the spectrum of ERAC’s accident analysis issues, from determining cause and effect, and better understanding human factors, to advancing systems thinking in the design of safety protocols.
In his final leadership role as Chairman of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council, Dr. Maxim modeled the behavior he expected from others through his deep, personal commitment to the hard work of crunching the numbers, understanding the data and using the insights gained from his analysis to build research-based public policy interventions. Dan will be remembered not only for his friendship, sharp intellect and wit, but for also his self-deprecating humor and relaxed presentation style that simultaneously engaged, entertained and inspired us all to remain committed to our purpose and focused on our mission. We are forever indebted to Dr. L. Daniel Maxim for his vision, insight and dedication.