Contact Dr Jim Nixon
- Tel: +44 (0) 1234 758526
- Email: jim.nixon@cranfield.ac.uk
- ORCID
Areas of expertise
- Air Transport Safety & Investigation
- Counter-IED
- Human Factors
- Human Factors for Defence
Background
Before joining Cranfield University as a lecturer, Jim was a principal human factors engineer at BAE Systems, Advanced Technology Centre applying human factors in defence across air, land and marine domains. Prior to this he worked as a human factors specialist at NATS (formerly National Air Traffic Services) working predominantly on the introduction of the new medium-term conflict-detection tools in area control. Jim has a PGCert in academic practice and is is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Jim holds a PhD and MSc in human factors, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology. He is a Chartered psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and holds BPS certification in ability and personality (NEO-PI-R) occupational testing.Current activities
Jim is programme director for award bearing courses in the Centre for Accident Investigation. Jim lectures in human factors in aviation safety, leading modules in cognitive ergonomics and research methods.
He is currently working on research projects with BAE Systems through the DHCSTC Humans in Systems programme, NLR through the Future Sky Safety programme funded by the Horizon 2020 (Futuresky-Safety) and Rolls-Royce through the Cranfield Aerospace Integration Research Centre (AIRC). Jim is also currently engaged in research with easyJet.
Jim is the vice-chairperson of the Cranfield University Research Ethics Committee (CURES) and is an elected member of Cranfield University Senate.
His research interests include applied human factors in aviation and defence, quantitative analysis of human factors data and human performance measurement and assessment, especially mental workload. He also has interests in the use of new sensor technologies in understanding human performance.
Clients
- Enhanced cockpit decision making, funded by Rolls-Royce.
- Future sky safety: human performance envelope, funded by Horizon 2020.
- Multi-source information assimilation to support decision making, funded by Defence Human Capability Science and Technology Centre.
Publications
Articles In Journals
- Clewley R & Nixon J (2022) A new facet of category theory: cognitive disadvantage and its implications for safety in the cockpit, Ergonomics, Available online 28 September 2022.
- Clewley R & Nixon J (2022) Now you see it, now you don’t: dynamism amplifies the typicality effect, Cognition, Technology and Work, 24 (3) 473-481.
- Clewley R & Nixon J (2022) Penguins, birds, and pilot knowledge: can an overlooked attribute of human cognition explain our most puzzling aircraft accidents?, Human Factors, 64 (4) 662-674.
- Schmidt TA, Kourdali HK & Nixon J (2021) Evaluating process-based and crew- centred approaches to procedure design in aviation: workload and performance changes in go-around manoeuvres, Applied Ergonomics, 90 (January) Article No. 103244.
- Nixon J, Hodgkinson J & Bennett C (2020) Modified immersion suits for helicopter aircrew: evidence for improved conspicuity from sea trials, Safety Science, 130 (October) Article No. 104903.
- Hodgkinson J, Nixon J, Bennett C & Tatam RP (2020) Field investigation of retroreflective materials for enhanced target detection in maritime search and rescue, Proceedings of SPIE, 11354.
- Nixon J, Pilbeam C & Kirwan B (2019) Pragmatic science? Reflections on the academic - industry interactions in a European aviation research programme., MATEC Web of Conferences: 9th EASN International Conference on “Innovation in Aviation & Space", 304 Article No. 06003.
- Kirwan B, Wies M, Charles R, Dormoy C-A, LetouzeT, Lemkadden A, Maille N, Nixon J, Ruscio D & Schmidt-Moll C (2019) Charting the edges of human performance, MATEC Web of Conferences: 9th EASN International Conference on “Innovation in Aviation & Space", 304 Article No. 06007.
- Clewley R & Nixon J (2019) Understanding pilot response to flight safety events using categorisation theory, Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 20 (5) 572-589.
- Asmayawati S & Nixon J (2019) Modelling and supporting flight crew decision-making during aircraft engine malfunctions: developing design recommendations from cognitive work analysis, Applied Ergonomics, 82 (January) Article No. 102953.
- Charles R & Nixon J (2018) Measuring mental workload using physiological measures: a systematic review, Applied Ergonomics, 74 (January) 221-232.
- Martin D & Nixon J (2018) Helicopter pilots' views of air traffic controller responsibilities: a mismatch, Ergonomics, 62 (2) 268-276.
- Nixon J & Braithwaite GR (2018) What do aircraft accident investigators do and what makes them good at it? Developing a competency framework for investigators using grounded theory, Safety Science, 103 (March) 153-161.
- Nixon J & Charles R (2017) Understanding the human performance envelope using electrophysiological measures from wearable technology, Cognition, Technology and Work, 19 (4) 655-666.
- Stedmon A, Moore D, Nixon J & Harris D. (2016) Transport in the 21st Century: The application of human factors to future user needs, Applied Ergonomics, 53 (Part B) 295-297.
- Nixon J, Leggatt A & Campbell J (2015) The development and assessment of behavioural markers to support counter-IED training, Applied Ergonomics, 48 130-137.
- Nixon J & McGuinness B (2013) Framing the Human Dimension in Cybersecurity, EAI Endorsed Transactions on Security and Safety, 13 (2).
- Anand S, Ware J M, Sharples S, Jackson M & Nixon J (2006) Schematic maps in MobileGIS environments: an automated simulated annealing based case study, Cognitive Processing, 7 (1) 7-8.
Conference Papers
- Nixon J, Clewley R & Rukasha T (2022) Automation transparency and the design of intelligent aircraft engine interfaces. In: 35th International BCS Human-Computer Interaction Conference, 2022, Keele University, 11-13 July 2022.
- Kerr CM & Nixon J (2022) Impact of wearing facemasks on pilot non-technical skills during the covid-19 pandemic. In: Ergonomics and Human Factors 2022, Birmingham, 11-26 April 2022.
- Neroj HJ & Nixon J (2022) Novel mental workload scale application using fuzzy sets theory. In: Ergonomics and Human Factors 2022, Birmingham, 11-26 April 2022.
- Biella M, Wies M, Charles R, Maille N, Berberian B & Nixon J (2018) How eye tracking data can enhance human performance in tomorrow’s cockpit. Results from a flight simulation study in FUTURE SKY SAFETY.. In: 2017 Joint AIAA and Royal Aeronautical Society (RaeS) Fall Conference on Modeling and Simulation for ATM, London, 15 November 2017.
- Charles R & Nixon J (2017) Blink counts can differentiate between task type and load. In: Ergonomics & Human Factors 2017, Daventry, 25-27 April 2017.
- Biella M, Wies M, Charles R, Maille N, Berberian B & Nixon J (2017) How eye tracking data can enhance human performance in tomorrow's cockpit. In: FAeS Flight Simulation Conference: Modelling and Simulation in Air Traffic Management, 2017, London, 14-15 November 2017.
- Clewley R & Nixon J (2016) Event prototypes in airline transport operations. In: Ergonomics & Human Factors 2016, Daventry, 19-21 April 2016.
- Attfield S, Fields B, Wheat A, Hutton R, Nixon J, Leggatt A & Blackford H (2015) Distributed sensemaking: A case study of military analysis. In: 12th International Conference on Naturalistic Decision Making, McLean, Virginia, 9-12 June 2015.
- Nixon J (2014) What do accident investigators do and what makes them good at it?. In: European Society of Air Safety Investigators, Milan, 23-24 April 2014.
- Nixon J. & Lowrey A. (2013) A quick method of assessing situation awareness in air traffic control. In: Contemporary ergonomics and human factors, 2013, Cambridge, 15-18 April 2013.
- Nixon J, Isaac A & Ferneyhough R (2012) Understanding pilot-controller workload in new systems. In: Contemporary ergonomics and human factors, 2012, Blackpool, 16-19 April 2012.
- Nixon J (2012) Structured assessment of performance advantage from future interface technologies. In: Contemporary ergonomics and human factors, 2012, Blackpool, 16-19 April 2012.
- Nixon J, Sharples S & Jackson M (2008) Less is more? Navigating with different types of information on a small-screen device. In: 52nd Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2008, New York, 22-26 September 2008.
- Nixon J, Abrahart R J & Chambers C (2008) In search of Spatial Literacy: the Nottingham Sputnik Model. In: GISRUK 2008, Manchester, 2-4 April 2008.
- Nixon J, Sharples S & Jackson M (2007) Presenting spatial information on a mobile device: Differences in workload and performance. In: 51st Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 2007, Baltimore, Maryland, 1-5 October 2007.
- Nixon J, Sharples S & Jackson M (2007) Ask the expert: The potential for location-based support in the fire service. In: GISRUK 2007, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 11-13 April 2007.
- Anand S, Ware J, Sharples S, Nixon J & Jackson M (2006) Automated schematic mapping for MobileGIS: Technical developments and human factors requirements. In: Tenth International Conference on Information Visualisation (IV'06), London, 5-7 July 2006.
