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Christopher Wickens
Biography
Chris Wickens received his BA degree from Harvard College in 1967. After service in the US Navy he received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1974. He was a Professor of Psychology at University of Illinois from 1974-2005. In 1984 he also received joint appointments from the Department of Industrial Engineering and the Institute of Aviation. Within the latter, he was Head of the Aviation Human Factors Division and Associate Director of the Institute. Since his retirement from Illinois he has been a senior scientist at AlionScience and Technology in Boulder (and now Louisville) and since 2014 he has been an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University.

His fundamental research interests are in attention, multi-tasking and human-automation interaction; themes addressed through theories, principles, computational models and human factors applications, particularly to safety in aviation and other transportation systems. He has authored or co-authored three textbooks (Introduction to Human Factors, Engineering Psychology, and Applied Attention Theory, along with a book on Automation in Air Traffic Control, and over 250 publications in refereed journals or book chapters. He has supervised 43 PHD students at the University of Illinois and Nanyang Institute of Technology Singapore. He has received annual rewards from the Federal Aviation Agency, the Flight Safety Foundation and the Human Factors Society for his contributions to the field (President’s Award) and for best article in the journal Human Factors (4 times). He has been an avid mountain climber and rock climber.