Safety Management Systems
Center of Innovation
Dr. Marc B. Mandler, Director
Safety Management Systems Center of Innovation (RVT-30)
Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, RITA/USDOT
617/494-6110 | marc.mandler@dot.gov
Dr. Marc Mandler, Director Safety Management Systems Center of Innovation, has over 25 years in all aspects of transportation R&D and management. Since joining the Volpe Center in 2006, Dr. Mandler was Deputy Director and then acting Director of the Office of Demonstration and Deployment Programs, overseeing the on-going improvement of the transportation and logistics enterprise by designing, developing and deploying system capabilities for greater effectiveness and security worldwide.
Prior to assuming the Office of Demonstration and Deployment Programs Deputy Director position, Dr. Mandler served as Technical Director of the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center in Groton, Connecticut, a position he held since April 1997. The R&D Center conducts research and develops products to support the varied missions for the U.S. Coast Guard. Dr. Mandler joined the R&D Center in 1984 to develop a research program to improve the effectiveness of the Coast Guard’s visual aids to navigation system. He conducted numerous studies and authored many publications on visual signaling and visual detection. In 1989, Dr. Mandler established the R&DC’s human factors program to develop tools and methods to improve the safety and performance of the humans who operate our maritime system. He served as Chief of the Systems Analysis Branch and Chief of the Waterways and Marine Safety Division at the R&DC prior to becoming Technical Director.
Dr. Mandler’s previous research focused on understanding how to design shipboard electronic navigation systems to improve the safety of marine transportation. He was Co-Chair of the White House National Science and Technology Council Subcommittee on Human-Centered Transportation Safety, and chaired the Department of Transportation Human Factors Coordinating Committee.
Dr. Mandler received a B.A. degree from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1977 and a Ph.D. in Psychology and Visual Perception from the Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, in Rochester, New York, in 1983. After completing his doctoral degree, Dr. Mandler was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he studied the neural basis of human color vision.
