Judith Bürki-Cohen, Ph.D.
Dr. Judith Bürki-Cohen is the manager of the Cockpit Human Factors Program in the Human Factors Division of the U.S. Department of Transportation's John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center). Currently, the program includes two major research areas: one supporting improved pilot training through the use of simulators and the other supporting pilot performance by ensuring appropriate information display and interface design. During her tenure at VNTSC, she has initiated and managed several other human factors research programs, including air traffic control communications, automation, and high speed rail.
Before joining the Volpe Center in 1991, Dr. Bürki-Cohen earned her doctorate in Experimental Psychology with the Language and Cognition Group of the Psychology Department at Northeastern University, where she was supported by an American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Award. Before that, she applied her post-baccalaureate degrees in pre-clinical medicine and German, French, Italian, and English to editing and translating the proceedings of medical conventions for an international pharmaceutical company in Switzerland.
Dr. Bürki-Cohen has published and supervised publications in the areas of simulator fidelity, air traffic control communications, locomotive cab information display design, and speech perception and bilingualism. She has consulted on FAA air traffic automation projects and served as a member of several FAA systems evaluation teams. She is a member of the Association of Aviation Psychologists and of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Also, she has served as a reviewer for the journals Language and Speech and Bilingualism.
Phone: 617/494-2638
E-mail: judith.burki-cohen@dot.gov
