Dr. Nadine Sarter

Biography

Nadine B. Sarter is the Richard W. Pew Collegiate Professor Emeritus of Industrial Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. She earned her B.S. in 1981 and her M.S. in psychology in 1983 from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and completed her Ph.D. in industrial systems engineering in 1994 at Ohio State University. Sarter started her academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996 before moving to Ohio State University, where she became an associate professor of industrial systems engineering in 2002. In 2004, she joined the University of Michigan, where she was promoted to full professor in 2011, also holding an affiliate faculty position in robotics. Sarter’s research has primarily focused on fostering safe and effective human-machine interactions and human-autonomy teaming, with specific interests in system complexity effects, operator trust in semi-autonomous systems, and multimodal display design. Additionally, she directed the U-M Center for Ergonomics from 2015 to 2023 and served as a member of the College of Engineering Executive Committee from 2021 to 2024. Sarter has also taught various courses, concentrating on cognitive ergonomics and organizational safety, while her main research interests include human-robot interaction and the design of decision support systems for applications in aviation and military operations.

Research Interests