Donald Harris

Don has over 30 years of experience in Human Factors in the Aerospace, Automotive and Defence Industries. He is a Fellow and a Chartered Member of the Institute for Human Factors and Ergonomics and a Chartered Psychologist. He is currently engaged with COMAC (the new Chinese aircraft manufacturer) on the design and certification of flight deck interfaces and is working on an innovative aircraft concept with a UK consortium of consisting of GE; BAE Systems Southampton University and Coventry, funded by Innovate UK.

Don was a member of the FAA/EASA Human Factors Certification Working Group that developed the new certification rules for civil aircraft flight decks and was an accident investigator attached to the Division of Army Aviation. Don is a member of the Human Factors National Technical Committee for Aerospace and Defence; is the Human Factors Special Adviser on the National Air Traffic Services Safety Review Committee and is a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He was also a Visiting Academic in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan RoC. Don was awarded the 2006 Hodgson prize by the Royal Aeronautical Society and in 2008 was part of the team that received the Ergonomics Society President’s Medal. Don has been chair of the Engineering Psychology and Cognitive Ergonomics conference series since 1996. He has published over 250 journal, conference papers and book chapters and has edited or written 22 books on Human Factors.

Area of Expertise:

Human Factors in Aviation

My current research is aimed at embedding Human Factors into all aspects of engineering System design, development and operation. Modern Human Factors is no longer simply concerned with design of products and interfaces. By adopting an integrated Systems approach (encompassing design; training; person specification; operations; health and safety and environmental issues) significant enhancements in capability, safety and reductions in operational cost can be achieved. Using this ‘through life’ approach my current research interests are in developing novel concepts for design and operation (especially in the aerospace sector) and the spin out of human factors applications developed in this arena to other domains (e.g. the automotive, rail and marine sectors).