Dr. Terry von Thaden has joined the Illinois Fire Service Institute (IFSI) as a Human Factors Research Scientist. Dr. von Thaden will be responsible for providing support for IFSI research and educational programs for IFSI’s Firefighter Life Safety and Research Center. Her role is to focus on identifying and incorporating human factors research into current and new research activities. She will also be working with state, federal and private research agencies to identify opportunities for collaboration and funding.
“I’m looking forward to the significant challenges of this domain, but just as important, I look forward to translating systems research into vital real-world processes aiding firefighters to avoid injuries and accidents. In the long run, it’s about resiliency,” von Thaden said.
“We want to develop a multidisciplinary approach to study the culture of firefighters along with tools that make the job safer. The access we have at the Institute allows us to do just that. Terry’s work compliments our current research and will bring new opportunities in our future research,” Dr. Gavin Horn, Director for the Firefighter Life Safety Research Center said.
Dr. von Thaden comes to the institute with an impressive background in scientific research. Her research involves distributed information practice in safety and time critical environments including first response, aviation, medical, security, and transportation systems. Her work investigates human factors affecting risk assessment; individual and group decision processes; information exchange and crisis management, among other areas.
Dr. von Thaden holds affiliate appointments in the University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Human Factors Division, Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Psychology. She currently serves on numerous Government-Industry working groups. She is a licensed pilot and motorcyclist. Dr. von Thaden earned her Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of Illinois.
