Bio
Catherine M. Burns is Professor in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada and Associate Vice-President, Health Initiatives and Sponsored Research at the Office of Research at the University of Waterloo. In her administrative role she is responsible for institutional and triagency funding programs, research partnerships, Waterloo’s equity in research action plan, and research computing. Most recently she chaired Waterloo’s Health Initiatives Task force to develop a health strategy in response to Waterloo’s 2025 Strategic Plan. Catherine holds a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Human Factors and Healthcare Systems, has contributed over 250 publications and is the co-author of seven books.
Catherine is well known for her work in Cognitive Work Analysis, Ecological Interface Design and the development of decision support systems. She is a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. Catherine’s recent research projects have been exploring how naval crews work with data fusion systems, how people work with artificial intelligence systems, interactions with automated vehicles, and support for improved medical decision making.