Sample Biographies
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Robert A. Bjork Wendy Castleman Robert Hoffman Mark McDaniel Gregory E. Monaco |
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Helga Noice Victoria Romero Ann Speed Gordon Willis Dan Wright |
Gregory E. Monaco
Professional Biography: Gregory Monaco received his M.A. and Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Kansas State University. He previously served as the CEO and currently serves as President of Monaco & Associates Incorporated. His work as a psychologist has been varied. His recent work includes managing a total portfolio of US$58 million in awards from the National Science Foundation, including the management of an Advanced Networking Infrastructure program and co-management of a Strategic Technologies for the Internet Program. Greg Monaco has worked as a data processing training specialist for the Employment Security Systems Institute and as a qualified mental retardation professional for the Kansas Department of Social Services.Personal Statement: With applied research, at least as I see it, the goal is to solve a problem in a way that impacts the behavior or the performance of others. So, in the case of developing software for bioscientists, success is measured in terms of actually improving the way people collaborate using the software. In the case of developing techniques to teach reading to children with reading deficits, success is measured in terms of actually improving reading performance. The challenge of following a project through from beginning to end is very rewarding and really a lot of fun.
I think that applied research chose me. I wanted to do something with "social value." After graduate school I was appointed to a position doing research on reading acquisition in children and individuals with cognitive deficits. This is where I learned from those I worked with to think about the theoretical aspects of a real world problem, and to test the theoretical notions in the applied setting. I remained in the area of services to people with developmental disabilities and went on to develop training and software for people who work in this area. This process is exciting at times, especially when rolling out a new product and finding that folks are excited about it. However, applied research can also be frustrating, like when it took several years to bring a concept from initial idea to beta test version.
What I do now is quite applied, putting together collaborations of scientists from various disciplines to work together on a problem or problem area using advanced computation or advanced networking. But this work is kind of scary because I don't always have a good grasp of the technical issues involved. That is one of the major challenges to doing applied research. I think that we have barely scratched the surface identifying and refining practical applications of cognitive psychology. There is a lot of potential for cognitive psychologists to work with other specialists – scientists in other disciplines – to solve problems, together.
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