Donald Fisher, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Director, Human Performance Laboratory
MIE Department; 220 ELAB;
University of Massachusetts; Amhearst, MA 01003-2210
Office: 413-545-1657 Fax: 413-545-0724
Email: fisher@ecs.umass.edu
Web: Donald Fisher

Professor Fisher joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the fall of 1982.   He became the Head of the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering in 2009 and has served in that capacity since. He is also a Faculty Fellow at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in Cambridge, MA and Director of the Arbella Insurance Human Performance Laboratory. Professor Fisher received his bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College, master’s degree from Harvard, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Fisher is the Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on over $23 million in research funding  including grants from the federal (National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control), state (Massachusetts Department of Transportation, Governor’s Highway Safety Bureau) and regional (New England Transportation Consortium, New England University Transportation Center) governments, private and public foundations, and private industry.  Professor Fisher’s current research interests are human factors and safety, particularly in transportation and healthcare.  He is editor of the recently published Handbook of Driving Simulation for Engineering, Medicine and Psychology and has over 300 scientific publications.  He has served on the editorial boards of the leading journals in human factors, has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Human Factors Committee, and has been asked to speak as an expert on transportation safety to state and federal officials (MassDOT, U.S. Congress, National Institutes of Health, National Transportation Safety Board, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center), to foundations (AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety) and to nationally convened expert panels (State Farm).

While at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Professor Fisher has taken an active interest in undergraduate education, helping to initiate and administer a campus wide summer research program for undergraduates, growing the service learning opportunities for undergraduates in probability and statistics, and obtaining National Science Foundation and General Electric Foundation funding for programs to improve undergraduate engineering education.  He is heavily involved in graduate education as well, having supervised over 50 graduate students, including 34 master’s degree students, 19 doctoral students, and several postdoctoral fellows, taking an active lead in major NSF and NIH initiatives involving some 10 different universities to increase diversity among graduate students, and building the Arbella Insurance Human Performance Laboratory, a facility with some of the most advanced driving simulators in the country.  Professor Fisher has been received the College of Engineering Outstanding Junior and Senior Faculty Awards, along with teaching, outreach and advising awards, and a number of best paper awards.