Distinguished Faculty, Scholarly & Creative Achievement Award

Dr. Kim-Phuong Vu

Psychology

Dr. Kim-Phuong Vu’s research is making air traffic safer, websites easier to navigate, and devices with displays and controls easier to use.

Recognized internationally as an expert on stimulus-response compatibility, Dr. Vu’s research focuses on:

• How performance improves with certain mappings of stimuli to responses, which has implications for how displays and controls should be organized and mapped in order to achieve efficient performance with minimal errors;

• Human-computer interaction, which is concerned with designing computer interfaces and products with users in mind so that they are most effective;

• Human factors issues in operating advanced air vehicles, air traffic management concepts and automation technologies and evaluating interface design solutions for the advanced displays and controls associated with new technologies.

Since she arrived at CSULB in 2005, Dr. Vu has served as principal investigator, co-investigator or senior personnel on eight grants or funded projects totaling more than $8 million from NASA, NSF, The Boeing Company, Northrup Grumman Corporation and the CSU Chancellor’s office.

Dr. Vu has authored or co-authored 29 peer-reviewed journal articles and was lead editor for a major handbook, the Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design (2nd ed), which was released this month. She has co-authored one book, Stimulus Response Compatibility Principle. She has published 12 book chapters/encyclopedia entries and 31 conference proceedings papers. Her work has been positively received nationally and internationally, being cited by researchers 251 times in 40 journals. She has been invited to give five talks and has had over 40 spoken or poster presentations at professional conventions.

“Dr. Vu is conducting a wide-ranging, integrated and exceptionally productive research program that not only pulls in collaborators from other institutions, but also incorporates training of CSULB students at graduate and undergraduate levels,” said Psychology Department Chair Ken Green. “She has been a key figure in obtaining an impressive amount of grant support and has already achieved international prominence through her accomplishments.”