Volpe Center Human Factors Program Managers
Stephen Popkin, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-3532
E-mail: Stephen.Popkin@volpe.dot.gov
Stephen Popkin is an engineering psychologist who serves as chief of
the Volpe Center’s Human Factors Division. Prior to joining the
Volpe Center, he was a senior engineer at Foster-Miller, Inc.,
specializing in human-fatigue-related projects for FRA and NASA.
His other previous work experience has included conducting visual
performance and fatigue research for the U.S. Navy and studying
the effects of partial sleep deprivation on work-related performance
at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. He founded the
Fatigue Monitoring and Countermeasures Research Team in exploring
multimodal fatigue and alertness issues, including the testing,
development, and validation of fatigue-monitoring technologies and
countermeasures. He sits on DOT’s Human Factors Coordinating
Committee. He is also an elected member to the International
Commission on Occupational Health’s Working Time Society, a
group dedicated to understanding the effects of shiftwork on
workers’ health and performance. He has a doctorate in industrial
and organizational psychology.
Judith Bürki-Cohen, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2638
E-mail: Judith.Burki-Cohen@volpe.dot.gov
Judith Bürki-Cohen manages the Cockpit and Human Factors
program, which supports FAA, providing improved pilot training
with use of simulators and enhancing pilot performance by ensuring
appropriate information display and interface design. She has also
managed a research program focusing on air traffic control
(ATC) communication and high-speed rail. Dr. Bürki-Cohen has
consulted on air traffic automation projects and served as a member
of several FAA system evaluation teams. She has a doctorate in
experimental psychology.
Kim Cardosi, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2696
E-mail: Kim.M.Cardosi@volpe.dot.gov
Kim Cardosi is a national expert in aviation human factors at the
Volpe Center. Her research has focused on flight-deck and ATC
considerations. She has conducted extensive research on controllerpilot
voice communications and has supported many FAA and
international aviation safety programs. Dr. Cardosi’s recent research
has been aimed at identifying, classifying, and developing mitigation
strategies for factors that contribute to pilot and controller error
associated with runway incursions. She has a doctorate in experimental
psychology and a private pilot’s license.
Divya Chandra, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-3882
E-mail: Divya.Chandra@volpe.dot.gov
Divya Chandra is an aviation human factors specialist who serves as
the lead for the Volpe Center’s Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) project.
She has worked extensively with airlines and EFB vendors through
the Air Transport Association (ATA), compiling a comprehensive
document on human factors considerations for EFBs. She also leads
an FAA-sponsored project on flight symbology. Before joining the
Volpe Center, Dr. Chandra worked on the design and evaluation of
traffic and weather data-link services for general aviation and on the
design of the computer-human interface for the Center-TRACON
Automation System (CTAS). She has a doctorate in psychology and
a private pilot’s certificate.
Stephanie G. Chase, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-6348
E-mail: Stephanie.Chase@volpe.dot.gov
Stephanie Chase is an engineering psychologist specializing in safety
in aviation and railroad operation. Her research for FAA has focused
on understanding necessary requirements for the development of a
driving simulator for vehicle operator training and investigating the
factors involved in runway incursions and surface incidents. Her
research on rail safety includes program evaluation, the impact of
traumatic events on railroad employees, and subsequent prevalence
of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within the workforce,
and railroad sign human factors. Her previous research experience
includes work in social cognition, particularly studies on perception,
memory, and recall. She has a doctorate in experimental psychology.
Daniel J. Hannon, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2198
E-mail: Daniel.Hannon@volpe.dot.gov
Daniel Hannon is an engineering psychologist whose research is
focused on flight-deck and ATC human factors as well as the labeling
of hazardous materials. He has studied the perception of color as
well as cognitive neuroscience and aging. Currently, he is involved in
projects related to runway safety and railroad-signal human factors.
He has a doctorate in experimental psychology.
Heidi Howarth, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2522
E-mail: Heidi.Howarth@volpe.dot.gov
Heidi Howarth is an engineering psychologist specializing in
ergonomic work systems and transportation operator fatigue. She
serves as co-lead of the Fatigue Monitoring and Countermeasures
Research Team, which investigates multimodal fatigue and alertness
issues, including fatigue management and the validation of fatiguemonitoring
technologies. She is also involved in research on
drivers’ acceptance of emerging and new in-vehicle technologies for passenger automobiles and commercial trucks. She has a doctorate
in industrial and organizational psychology.
Gina Melnik, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-3935
E-mail: Gina.Melnik@volpe.dot.gov
Gina Melnik is a human factors engineer with a background in
research psychology. She is involved in FRA-sponsored research
focusing on ways to improve the effectiveness of locomotive train
horns as warning devices at grade crossings. She has also peformed
aviation research, including exploration of memory-aid usage in ATC,
and was a member of a team that evaluated runway incursions. She has
a doctorate in experimental psychology.
Jordan Multer, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2573
E-mail: Jordan.Multer@volpe.dot.gov
Jordan Multer is a human factors engineer and is currently the principal
investigator of the Human Factors Support Program, which assists
FRA in its efforts to create safer rail transportation systems. His current
focus is directed toward implementing a close call reporting system for
the U.S. railroad industry. He has supervised projects focusing on the
use of warning devices at highway-railroad grade crossings, including
devices for making locomotives more conspicuous, retroreflective
markings for making railcars more visible, and wayside audible horns.
He also managed a project to develop human factors guidelines
for the evaluation of locomotive cabs and supervised projects examining
the role of automation and communications technology on
safety in train control. Dr. Multer worked with FAA to improve the
design of aeronautical charts used by pilots and studied ATC communications
for the purpose of reducing errors. For FTA, he evaluated
design specifications for detectable warning surfaces to assist
visually impaired users of public transportation. He has a doctorate
in experimental psychology.
John K. Pollard
Phone: (617) 494-3537
E-mail: John.K.Pollard@volpe.dot.gov
John Pollard is an operations research analyst whose major projects
have included on-road testing of the effectiveness of radar-based
collision-warning devices, an investigation into the causes of sudden
acceleration in automobiles, and research on the causes of fatigue
among merchant mariners and locomotive crews. For FRA, he is
evaluating new technologies to warn operators of loss of alertness,
consulting on studies to assess the effectiveness of fatigue countermeasures,
evaluating new technologies for surveillance of driver behavior
at grade crossings as well as acoustic-warning devices, and investigating
the design of motorcoach and rail-passenger equipment as it affects
riders’ ability to escape in emergency situations. He has an MBA.
Thomas B. Sheridan, ScD
Phone: (617) 494-2154
E-mail: Thomas.Sheridan@volpe.dot.gov
Thomas Sheridan is a senior transportation fellow at the Volpe Center,
where he supports projects in aviation, highway, and rail safety. He is
also Ford Professor of Engineering and Applied Psychology Emeritus
in both the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department
of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT. As director of the
MIT Human-Machine Systems Laboratory, his research focused on
enhancements to human performance and safety for air, space, and
undersea robotics; nuclear power, medical, and virtual reality systems;
and arms control. Dr. Sheridan has authored over 200 technical papers
and five books and has served on numerous advisory committees. He
is a fellow and past president of both the Human Factors and
Ergonomics Society and IEEE’s Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society.
He received many prestigious awards, including the IEEE Centennial
Medal, a Third Millennium Medal, and the National Engineering
Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies. He is
a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Mary D. Stearns, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-2617
E-mail: Mary.D.Stearns@volpe.dot.gov
Mary Stearns is a program manager who leads research that supports
NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Research in monitoring the highpriority,
multiyear Safety Vehicle Using Adaptive Interface Technology
(SAVE-IT) program, aimed at developing a prototype system to
minimize driver distraction. She has designed and conducted
evaluations of user acceptance of automotive collision avoidance and
roadway-departure warning systems, specifically addressing the issues
of older drivers. Dr. Stearns has performed extensive human factors
research for FAA, leading a team that developed a PC-based tool to
assess human factors considerations for equipment and that provided
the human factors plan for a proposed ATC tower upgrade. She has a
doctorate in sociology.
Michelle Yeh, PhD
Phone: (617) 494-3459
E-mail: Michelle.Yeh@volpe.dot.gov
Michelle Yeh is an engineering psychologist. Since coming to the
Volpe Center from Mitre Corporation, where she conducted research
on display technology, she has led and supported projects on
identifying human factors guidelines for new flight deck technologies,
understanding driver behavior and compliance to driving rules, and
program evaluation for FAA, FMCSA, and FRA. She has a doctorate
in experimental psychology.
