NASA Awards $1.8 Million to Psychology Professor

Pegasus Professor and Trustee Chair, Eduardo Salas, was selected for two of the 23 awards that NASA and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute announced for its crew health program. Proposals were openly solicited from academia, industry and government laboratories and were judged for scientific merit by non-NASA technical experts. The issue being addressed is astronaut health and performance risks for future space exploration missions. Following external peer review, NASA and NSBRI selected 23 meritorious proposals representing 14 states and 18 institutions. These grants are collectively valued at approximately $17 million over their lifetimes of one to three years.

Salas was the only PI selected for two awards and the only other universities to receive more than one award were Arizona State and Michigan State.  NASA awarded Salas a grant for his proposal called, “Evidenced-based Metrics Toolkit for Measuring Safety and Efficiency in Human -Automation Systems.” The second award given by the NSBRI was for his proposal, “Using Real-Time Lexical Indicators to Detect Performance Decrements in Spaceflight Teams: A Methodology to Dynamically Monitor Cognitive, Emotional, and Social Mechanisms that Influence Performance.”  The two awards total $1.8 million.