KEY ONGOING RESEARCH PROJECTS
1. Psychophysiology of Isolation, Confinement & Behavioral Health in Long-Duration Missions
The behavioral health and performance sustainability of long-duration crews is one of the most urgent and still incompletely solved problems in human spaceflight. This research program examines how physiological markers of stress, autonomic dysregulation, and cognitive decline emerge overtime in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments, and how evidence-based interventions to detect, prevent, and mitigate them can be developed.
The program draws on psychophysiological monitoring, clinical neuropsychology, and lessons from analog environments — submarine operations, polar stations, saturation diving — where human beings have been living the ICE experience for decades. A particular focus is on what genuine psychological resilience looks like at the individual and crew level, how it can be cultivated before and during a mission, and how support systems can be designed to function effectively even when Earth is too far away to help in real time.
This is a space where collaboration with space agencies (NASA, ESA, and international partners), commercial spaceflight companies, analog habitat operators, and behavioral health researchers is essential.
→ See also: Human Performance Optimization
2. Ecological Human-Machine Interface Design in Critical Aerospace Safety Systems
When a pilot, controller, or spacecraft operator interacts with a safety-critical system, the quality of that interaction is not simply a matter of usability — it is a question of whether the interface supports or undermines the human's ability to perceive meaning, make sound decisions, and act effectively in time. Poor interface design has been implicated in some of the most consequential failures in aviation history. Good design, grounded in an understanding of how humans actually perceive and act in the world, saves lives.
This research program applies an ecological approach to human-machine interface (HMI) design in critical aerospace contexts — one rooted in Gibsonian affordance theory, neuroergonomics, and cognitive systems engineering. Rather than treating the operator as a processor of information, we treat them as an embodied agent embedded in a dynamic environment. The design question becomes not "what information should we display?" but "what does this person need to perceive in order to act in a functional way?"
Drawing on foundational work in ecological interface design and the neuroergonomics off light expertise, this program investigates how display systems, control configurations, and automation architectures can either support or disrupt the sensorimotor and cognitive processes underlying safe performance.
Industry involvement is essential in this program. Avionics developers, cockpit designers, simulation engineers, and aviation safety organizations bring the applied constraints and real-world complexity that this research entails. If your organization is working on next-generation displays, autonomous systems integration, or safety-critical interface challenges, we'd like to hear from you.
→ See also: Trans-disciplinary R&D
3. Decision-Making Under Uncertainty — The Affective Brain in Safety-Critical Aviation Environments
Every decision a pilot makes is shaped not only by information and procedure but also by the "emotional state" of the brain. Uncertainty, time pressure, fatigue, and the residue of prior experience all color the cognitive landscape — sometimes in ways that enhance judgment, and sometimes in ways that quietly undermine it. Understanding that influence is not a soft-science footnote to aviation safety. It may be one of its most underexplored frontiers.
This research program investigates how affect, emotion, and social-cognitive factors shape decision-making in safety-critical aviation environments. Drawing on neuroimaging, psychophysiological measurement, and behavioral paradigms developed at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and aviation psychology, the work examines questions such as: How does uncertainty alter risk perception and action selection in the cockpit? What role do intuitive versus deliberate processes play in experienced pilots' decision-making, and under what conditions do they fail? How do crew dynamics and social cognition influence collective judgment under stress?
The program is grounded in a conviction that what it is commonly called "human error” is rarely a simple failure of knowledge or procedure — it is most often a breakdown in the complex adaptive system of the embodied, situated, affectively alive human being operating within a larger sociotechnical world. Understanding that system more deeply is the path toward designing better safety nets around it.
This project welcomes collaboration with aviation safety researchers, accident investigation bodies, airline operations teams, and cognitive scientists interested in applied questions with genuine life-safety stakes.
→ See also: Applied Psychophysiology