Professor Tom Triggs

Professor Tom Triggs is internationally renowned as a highly experienced researcher in the area of human factors and simulation and an active Emeritus Professor at Monash University, making contributions to the work at MUARC and in the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine. He has had extensive experience in simulation in several areas during his career, including cockpit instrumentation evaluation in aviation for the Australian Defence Science, tactual display evaluation using simulation for the US Office of Naval Research and nuclear power plant control room simulation. He has supervised many Honours and PhD students in driving simulation and was responsible for the introduction, development and validation of driving simulators at MUARC in the 1990s.

He led the young driver research program funded by the Prime Minister's Road Safety Initiative including the use of simulation, and has played a major role in the conduct of large scale research projects using simulation since then. Of particular note is the development of DriveSmart, a high technology training program for young drivers and the use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies in vehicles.  Other areas where driving simulation has been used under his supervision have included neuropsychology (Parkinson's disease), fatigue, drug and alcohol effects, visual decrements, task interference and distraction, vehicle lighting, inexperience, attention switching and cognitive development in young drivers.
 
Professor Triggs has been keynote speaker at a number of international conferences and in June 2007 will be keynote speaker at the Fourth International Simulation, Training and Technology Conference. In July 2006 he was keynote speaker at the Joshua Brown Foundation Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia. During the 1990's he served on the Driving Simulation Committee of the US Transportation Research Board. Professor Triggs is a Fellow of the US Human Factors Society and Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia. He has been awarded the Ron Cumming Memorial Medal and the Alan Welford Award by the Australian Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He was Associate Editor of Human Factors for 21 years and was Associate Editor of Applied Ergonomics for a decade as well as serving on the editorial boards of Safety Science, Cognitive Ergonomics, and Transportation Human Factors