Professor Emeritus Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

Joel Warm has been following in the footsteps of his mentor Earl Alluisi since the psychology professor advised Warm as a postdoctoral fellow.

Just as Alluisi worked at the Army Medical Research Laboratory at Fort Knox after obtaining his PhD, so did Warm. Warm also garnered recognition as a psychology professor and researcher in human factors—the field that examines how people use technology—much like Alluisi did.

And since Warm’s retirement from University of Cincinnati last fall, the professor emeritus of psychology has been able to add two more accomplishments to the list. He started his assignment as the senior scientist for the Air Force Research Laboratory (Alluisi was a chief scientist with them in 1979) and has been awarded the Franklin V. Taylor Award by Division 21 of the American Psychological Association (APA) just as his mentor was.

“It’s almost like he’s behind me, pushing me,” Warm says. “It’s amazing. I’m delighted to have received the Taylor Award. It’s the highest honor that the division gives for lifetime achievement.”

Warm, who spent more than 40 years at McMicken researching different aspects of human factors such as perception and vigilance, joins a distinguished list of human factors scientists who have received the recognition from the division—a group of applied experimental and engineering psychology experts.

“I wasn't surprised at all to hear that he had won the award,” says Psychology Professor Gerald Matthews, who collaborated regularly with Warm during his time at UC. “He's been one of the world's leading researchers in the field of vigilance and he has really established the importance of the topic to a range of human factors applications.”

Warm is spending the next two years conducting research at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where his main responsibilities are creating and running experiments, writing manuscripts, and advising staff on research problems. He is focusing his research on sustained attention, utilizing Transcranial Doppler Stenography to measure brain blood flow activity as an individual performs tasks.

So far, his stay has been a productive one. Since January, two of his papers have been published in major journals ("Military Psychology" and "Acta Psychologia") and three others are in press at "Ergonomics," "Theoretical Issues in Ergonomic Science" and "Neuroscience Letters." Another chapter is in press in a forthcoming book and two additional articles are under review as well.

At the next Division 21 meeting, Warm will receive a plaque for his award and will give a 45-minute address to the group.

“Getting the award is a major honor,” Warm says. “I’m pretty excited about it.”

Read more about Joel Warm’s work at UC:

It’s a ‘Warm’ Reception As Veteran McMicken Professor is Honored

UC Professor’s Vigilance Research Leads to Membership on Panel that ‘Watches Over’ the Army