Tom Dingus, Director

Since 1996, Tom Dingus has managed the operations and research at VTTI. This multi–disciplinary organization conducts over $12 million annually in sponsored research. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Tom Dingus was founding director of the National Center for Transportation Technology at the University of Idaho and was an associate director of the Center for Computer–Aided Design at the University of Iowa.

Dingus has conducted transportation safety and human factors research since 1984. His research has included the safety and usability of advanced in–vehicle devices, the development of crash avoidance technology, large–scale studies of driver behavior and performance, studies of truck driver fatigue, and driver distraction and attention research. He has over 150 technical publications, has managed over $100 million in research funding and has served as principal investigator on a number of programs and projects thus far in his career. These have included high–fidelity simulator studies at the University of Iowa, instrumented vehicle research both on–road and on test tracks, and large–scale naturalistic studies of driving. He also serves as principal investigator on an existing National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Indefinite Quantity Contract (IQC).

His distraction work has resulted in over 40 book chapters and refereed publications and over 20 major technical reports. The associated projects have involved automobiles, trucks, and a number of after–market devices including cell phones. This work has been sponsored by the NHTSA, FMCSA, RITA, FHWA, NIH, the Virginia DOT, General Motors, Ford, and Qualcomm and has utilized naturalistic driving studies, smaller instrumented vehicle studies, test tracks studies and simulator experiments.

He has had the honor of testifying before a U.S. Congressional sub–committee as well as providing invited presentations to a Congressional Roundtable, the National Council of State Legislatures, the National Safety Council, and the Virginia Legislature on issues of driver distraction and attention.

Dingus is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society from which he has received several awards, including the A.R Lauer Award career achievement award for outstanding contributions to the field of safety.