Conference Speakers

Dr. Kathy Abbott

FAA Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor

Kathy is the FAA's Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor (CSTA) for Flight Deck Human Factors, with over 40 years of work on human performance and human error. Dr. Abbott has led the integration of human engineering into FAA/international regulatory material and policies for flight guidance systems, avionics, all-weather operations, Required Navigation Performance, crew qualification, data communication, instrument procedure design criteria, electronic flight bags, electronic displays, organizational culture, design-related pilot error, flight crew alerting, manual flight operations, and other areas. She has been involved extensively in accident, incident, and other safety data analysis.
Dr. Abbott came to the FAA from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where she was responsible for leading analytical, simulation, and flight studies with the specific objective of improving aviation safety and operational efficiency. She is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Member of the Livery of the Honourable Company of Air Pilots. She is a certificated private pilot, with familiarization training in several large transport aircraft. Dr. Abbott earned her B.S. in Mathematics and information Science from Christopher Newport College, an M.S. in Computer Science from George Washington University, and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Rutgers University.

Prof. Don Harris

Don is a Professor of Human Factors at the School of Future Transport Engineering at Coventry University. He has over 35 years of experience in Human Factors in the Aerospace, Automotive and Defence Industries. He works at the School of Future Transport Engineering at Coventry University and is a Fellow and Chartered Member of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Chartered Psychologist. Don is engaged in research related to the design and certification of flight deck interfaces for innovative aircraft concepts, and the measurement of team Situation Awareness.
Don was a member of the FAA/EASA Human Factors Certification Working Group that developed the Human Factors certification rules for civil aircraft flight decks; he was an accident investigator attached to the Army Air Corps, and was engaged by COMAC in the development and certification of their commercial aircraft flight decks. He has been a Visiting Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China and was also a Visiting Academic in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan RoC.
Don has received the Royal Aeronautical Society Hodgson Prize and was a member of the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre team that received the Ergonomics Society President's Medal.

Dr. Kate Manderson

Dr Kate Manderson is the Principal Medical Officer for the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Her background as an aerospace medicine Specialist is through the Australian Defence Force with the Royal Australian Navy, later moving into the civil sector in the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine. Dr Manderson is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Aerospace Medicine Association, the Australasian College of Aerospace Medicine and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She also has extensive experience in prevocational and Specialist medical education, and in clinical and corporate leadership and governance with particular focus on rural primary health care.