Professor Earns Human Factors Award

MELBOURNE, FLA. — John Deaton, director of research and chair of the Florida Tech Human Factors Program, will receive the Human Factors and Ergonomics
Society’s 2007 Jerome H. Ely Human Factors Award. Deaton earned the honor for his paper, “+Gz Acceleration Loss of Consciousness: Time Course of
Performance Deficits with Repeated Experience.” The paper was cowritten by Lloyd D. Tripp, Joel S. Warm, Gerald Matthews, Peter Chiu and Paul Werchan.

He will receive the award at the society’s 51st Annual Meeting on Oct. 2, 2007 in Baltimore, Md.

The Jerome H. Ely Human Factors Award recognizes excellence in papers published in the society’s annual volume of articles.
Deaton’s paper discussed the issue of how military pilots can be incapacitated for at least 60 seconds when they “pull Gs” during acceleration. This is the
force of gravity on the pilots, which robs their brains of normal blood flow and can cause loss of consciousness.

Deaton earned a doctoral degree in applied experimental psychology from the Catholic University of America, a master’s degree in experimental social
psychology from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree in general psychology, also from San Diego State.