 |
Alphonse Chapanis was professor emeritus of the
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore. He was a founding father of ergonomics, the science of
human factors in engineering design. Chapanis' contributions during
his 50-year career in the field of ergonomics are nearly countless.
Improving the safety of aircraft cockpits, the design of the standard
telephone touchpad, teleconferencing, safety labels, colorblindness, night
vision, digitized speech and human-computer interaction are just some of the
projects he pioneered in his lifetime. His lifetime achievements are
accounted for in his autobiography, "The Chapanis Chronicles".
During the Cold War, Chapanis documented many of his observations in the
U.S.S.R. for the U.S. government. At the age of 85, though officially
retired for 20 years, Chapanis continued to contribute to the field of
ergonomics. His book, "Human Factors in Engineering Design",
was published in 1996 and is the principal book for ergonomics. |
