Dr. Monk received his Ph.D. in Human Factors and Applied Cognition from George Mason University in 2004. Prior to joining the faculty at GMU, Dr. Monk spent over 10 years working as a human factors professional in the area of traffic safety.  For several years he provided on-site human factors technical support at the Federal Highway Administration and at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, where he studied driver distraction and the human factors of Intelligent Transportation Systems. Dr. Monk also worked as a human factors engineer for a major automotive manufacturer, where he worked on the user-interfaces for in-vehicle navigation systems. His core research question focuses on how people cognitively manage multiple tasks in dynamic contexts. He is currently studying the transition costs when shifting attention between driving and other tasks in GMU's new driving simulator. He also studies how well people resume a computer-based task after being interrupted.