Safety Development Expert, aviation

How did you find out about ergonomics?
Oddly enough I first heard of ergonomics studying for A Levels in relation to building design. It sounded interesting, but not something I considered any further. During my psychology degree at Swansea my tutor and subsequently professor, was Dave Oborne who taught a module on ergonomics and when I expressed an interest recommended the MSc at Birmingham.

Why a career in ergonomics?
By accident, I always earned just enough money to stop me going and looking somewhere else or jumping disciplines. I never thought of what I had as a career, just a string of jobs until I realised that's what it was...at 40!

What’s been the most interesting project you’ve worked on?
I'm not really allowed to talk about many of them, but of the ones that I can...I had a fantastic number of sessions at Sony looking at the intricacies of how programmes for televison and film were made. It is a massively labour intensive process and there are many opportunities to automate elements of it, but none of them are yet as efficient as a piece of paper and well designed form!

What’s been the most challenging work you’ve done?
Again, the most challenging projects are all very highly classified. You can probably read more on the web than I'd be allowed to speak about, but having spent almost 20 years in the same discipline, I still find myself having the same discussions with people about the value of the profession.

What do you do on a typical day?
Difficult to say at the moment, as my work is split into two major areas, safety cultre and supporting a large multi-threaded European project. The safety culture work is Europe-wide, so has involved me working in Slovenia and Norway, with Italy, Spain and Albania in the planning. The European project has had me looking at resilence, HRA, and human assurance levels. Lots of reading, lots of travel, and lots of report writing...and French lunch breaks!

What do you find most satisfying about your work?
It's interesting to be back in a research-style environment after delivering consultancy. It's a different approach and one that takes some getting used to.