Stephen Popkin, Ph.D.
Dr. Stephen Popkin is an engineering psychologist with a degree in Industrial and Organizational psychology (Ph.D. 1999, University of Connecticut) emphasizing human factors and transportation operator fatigue. Prior to coming to the Volpe Center he was on Foster-Miller Inc.'s technical staff as a Senior Engineer specializing in human fatigue related projects for the Federal Railroad Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Other previous work experience includes conducting visual performance and fatigue research at the Naval Submarine Medical Research Laboratory in Groton, Connecticut, and working at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health under a Ministry of Education scholarship for exploring the effects of partial sleep deprivation on work-related performance.
Currently, Stephen is leading the Fatigue Monitoring and Countermeasures Research Team at Volpe, exploring multimodal fatigue and alertness issues. This includes the testing, development and validation of fatigue monitoring technologies and countermeasures, and exploring various specific issues related to fatigue management as they arise. In addition, he sits on the DOT Human Factors Coordinating Committee and is Co-Chair of the Operator Fatigue Management taskforce, a cross-modal team that has been charged with, and successfully accomplished the task of developing new fatigue management tools for the transportation enterprise. Stephen is also a sitting member of the International Labor Organization's Working Time committee, a multinational group dedicated to understanding the effects of shiftwork on worker health and performance.
Phone: 617/494-3532
E-mail: stephen.popkin@volpe.dot.gov
