Dr Meshkati Honored For Work In Human Factors

Dr Najm Mashkati, USC engineering Professor has been praised for his work leading the University of Southern California's Aviation Safety and Security program for the past 30 years.

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Robert Sumwalt, the Executive Director, Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety, and former Chairman of the NTSB in a post on Linkedin said: "On behalf of the Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, I want to congratulate the University of Southern California Aviation Safety and Security program for 70 years of operation.

"I received my Aviation Safety Certificate at USC and, for three years, I taught the human factors in Aviation Safety course there with my dear friend, Dr. Najm Meshkati. Congratulations USC! You truly have set the bar for such programs! In the spirit of friendly competition, however, I hope our new centre at Embry-Riddle can share some of the business with USC. Together, both programs help to raise the safety bar."

On Thursday, December 15, there will be a ceremony at USC to celebrate and commemorate this unique and major milestone. 

Dr Meshkati has continuously been conducting research on human factors and aviation safety-related issues (e.g., cockpit design and automation, crew resource management, safety management system, safety culture, and runway incursions) and teaching in the USC 70-year-old internationally renowned Aviation Safety and Security Program, for the past 30 years. 

During this period, he has taught the “Human Factors in Aviation Safety” and “System Safety” short courses.  From 1992 to 1999, he also was the Director with administrative and academic responsibilities for the USC Institute of Safety and Systems Management's Professional Programs, which included Aviation Safety, as well as for Transportation Safety and Process Safety Management (which he designed and developed) programs.

Dr Meshkati said: "It has indeed been a pleasure and privilege to be affiliated with the USC Aviation Safety and Security Program for more than three decades as a member of its faculty and, for several years, also as its director.  It is one of the most impactful professional training programs in the world, primarily because of the high calibre of my colleagues and thousands of aviators, regulators, and safety professionals who have taken our courses and received training for one the most safety-critical industries -- aviation - in the last 70 years. I believe, because of its long track record, breadth and depth of its many courses, and global reach, almost every air traveller in the world today, directly or indirectly, has been a beneficiary of this program.  

"One of my professional takeaways and personal blessings has been meeting so many wonderful professionals who were in my classes, or I met them because of this program; many of whom became my lifetime friends and goto for aviation facts and knowhow; they include Honorable Capt. Robert Sumwalt, the former chairman of the National Transporation Safety Board (NTSB), who was my co-instructor for the human factors course for three years in the early 2000s before being appointed to the NTSB."

Dr Meshkati also praised AirlineRatings.com Editor-in-Chief Geoffrey Thomas's works on human factors. "Last but certainly not least, and for the record, I owe knowing you and meeting you, Geoff, to this program too!  I often refer to Geoff's seminal articles on cockpit automation, TCAS, ramp safety, runway incursions, Asiana 214, AF 447, pilot training, etc., in my classes, and thousands of my former "students" have read and like myself, were enriched by them!"