Biography
Peter Hancock, D.Sc., Ph.D.,is Provost Distinguished Research Professor and University Pegasus Professor, in the Department of Psychology, the Institute for Simulation and Training, and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering . at the University of Central Florida. In his previous appointment, he founded and was the Director of the Human Factors Research Laboratory, now the HumanFirst Program at the University of Minnesota. At Minnesota he held appointments as Full Professor in the Departments of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Psychology, and Kinesiology, as well as at the Cognitive Science Center and the Center on Aging Research. He currently holds courtesy appointments as an Adjunct Senior Research Scientist at the Transportation Institute at the University of Michigan, a Research Associate of the Humans and Automation Laboratory at MIT, and as a Research Associate of the Hawaii Academy.
Professor Hancock is the author of over 600 refereed scientific articles and publications and has edited numerous books including Human Performance and Ergonomics in the Handbook of Perception and Cognition series, published by Academic Press in 1999, Stress, Workload, and Fatigue [Description from Amazon.com], published in 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum. He is the author of the 1997 book, Essays on the Future of Human-Machine Systems.His co-edited text on Performance Under Stress has recently been published by Ashgate Press as has his co-edited text on Human Factors in Simulation and Training by CRC Press.
Dr. Hancock has been continuously funded by extramural sources every year of his professional career, including support from NASA, NIH, NIA, FAA, FHWA, the US Navy the US Air Force and the US Army, as well as numerous state and industrial agencies. He was the Principal Investigator on the first Multi-Disciplinary University Research Initiative on behavioral research ever funded by the U.S. Army. In this capacity he odirected $5,000,000 of funded research on stress, workload, and performance. He was also the first recipient of grant funds from the Federal Aviation Administration for his work on "Free Flight" in commercial aviation.
In 1999, Dr. Hancock was awarded the Arnold Small Lecturer of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 2000 he was awarded the Sir Frederic Bartlett Medalof the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain for lifetime achievement. He was the Keynote Speaker for the International Ergonomics Association and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society at the 2000 combined meeting in San Diego, CA. In 2001 he won the Franklin V. Taylor Award of the American Psychological Association as well as the Liberty Mutual Prize for Occupational Safety and Ergonomics from the International Ergonomics Association. In association with his colleagues Raja Parasuraman and Anthony Masalonis, he was the winner of the Jerome Hirsch Ely Award of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for 2001. That same year he was also elected a Fellow of the International Ergonomics Association and in december of that year was awarded the Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) degree from Loughborough University. In 2002, he was awarded the Jastrzebowski Medalof the Polish Ergonomics Society for contributions to world ergonomics and was also named Fellow of the Ergonomics Society of Great Britain. He is a Fellow of and past President of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 2003, Dr. Hancock was awarded the Liberty Mutual Medal of the International Ergonomics Association, a world-wide competition for innovative advances in occupational safety and ergonomics. In 2005, he was the recipient of the Jack Kraft Award of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
He was a multiple-term Member of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council’s Committee on Human Factors and in that capacity served as Chair and Organizer of a number of sub-committees. In 2003 he won the Liberty Mutual Medal of the International Ergonomics Association, a world-wide competition for innovative advances in occupational safety and ergonomics. In 2006 he won the Norbert Wiener Award of the Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), being the highest a ward that Society gives for scientific attainment. It is of interest also to note that the company ‘Geek Squad’ which is presently a subsidiary of ‘Best Buy’ and which was featured on ’60 Minutes’ in January 2007, was founded by Robert Stephens while working in Dr. Hancock’s Laboratory at Minnesota. In late 2007 Dr. Hancock was the recipient of the John C. Flanagan Award of the Society of Military Psychologists of the American Psychological Association for lifetime achievement and he was also the 2007 recipient of the A.R. Lauer Award of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for lifetime contributions to safety. In 2008 he received the Otto Edholm Award of the Ergonomics Society as well as the Raymond F. Longacre Award of the Aerospace Medical Association for outstanding accomplishment in the psychological and psychiatric aspects of aerospace medicine. Also in 2008 he was the winner of the Andrew P. Sage Award of the Systems, Man and Cybernetics Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) for the best published work in the Journals of the Society which numbered over three-hundred for the year. Also in 2008 he was named the winner of the Paul M. Fitts Award of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society for lifetime achievement in the mentoring of students in the profession and the discipline. In 2009, he was named University Pegasus Professor of the University of Central Florida. This is the highest award of the University which is the fifth largest in the United States. Professor Hancock is only the 16th individual ever to be so-named in the history of the Institution.
Dr. Hancock's current experimental work concerns the evaluation of behavioral response to high-stress conditions. His theoretical work concerns human relations with technology and the possible futures of this symbiosis which is the subject of his latest text Mind, Machine and Morality. He has played,and continues to play, a number of team sports as well as coaching youngsters in several of these sports. He collects and studies antique maps and is a committed Ricardian, an area in which he has also published extensively. The latest work in this sequence being the text, Richard III and the Murder in the Tower which is currently in production with the History Press.