July 01, 2024

Ryamond F. Longacre Award

Established to honor the memory of MAJ Raymond F. Longacre, MC, USA. It is given annually for outstanding accomplishment in the psychological and psychiatric aspects of aerospace medicine. It is sponsored by the Aerospace Human Factors Association.

Stephen C. Merriman, B.S., M.S., ATFBoeing, AFAsMA, FHFES

Stephen “Steve” Merriman, B.S., M.S., ATFBoeing, AFAsMA, FHFES, is the 2024 recipient of the Raymond F. Longacre Award for being a stanchion of aerospace safety for military and civilian operations in both government and industry. He has developed multiple training courses for human factors specialists and served as a member of various scientific advisory groups. His dedication to the human factor in technology development has been paramount to its success. He is responsible for crew station design and human engineering of 10-20 aircraft. He assisted in the development of cockpit standardization policies and requirements in the areas of controls, lighting, geometry and layout, noise, safety, environment, and display design. He served as Crew Systems Division technical lead on 40+ system development projects and provided technical assistance to the Navy on advanced research and development of helmet-mounted sights/displays, electro-luminescent displays, head-up displays, multi-function switching, crew station modeling, and aircraft instrumentation design. He is currently providing expert consulting to Boeing to develop human factors and safety design practices for commercial and military aircraft and space systems.
   Mr. Merriman has bachelors and masters degrees in psychology and 55+ years of experience as a practitioner of human factors engineering (HFE) and human systems integration (HSI). He has provided support to more than 65 acquisition programs, including the NASA Space Shuttle, Army manned and unmanned ground combat vehicles, Army unmanned air vehicles, missile systems, and more than 50 Navy, USMC, Army, and Air Force aircraft. From 1967 until 1987, he held systems acquisition and R&D positions with the U.S. Navy, Department of Defense Training and Performance Data Center, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From 1987 through 2015, he served in a variety of technical and leadership positions with The Boeing Company. He is an active member of several technical societies and government-industry associations, a Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Fellow, an Aerospace Medical Association Associate Fellow, and a Boeing Associate Technical Fellow. He was a recent member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (2015–2018). He was a past chair of the SAE G-45 HSI Committee and currently serves as a senior advisor. He is a current Director with the Foundation for Professional Ergonomics (FPE) and a Life member of the SAFE Association. He is also an HFE/HSI consultant to government and industry customers.
   Mr. Merriman has been recognized by both military and civilian groups. He has won a variety of awards from Boeing, including a 25-year service award, and received the SAE International Aerospace Council James M. Crawford Technical Standards Board Outstanding Achievement Award. He also received certificates of appreciation from the U.S. Army and the Boeing Vice President for contributions to Integrated Mission Test 1 and for superior performance at the System of Systems Preliminary Design Review and was designated as MANPRINT “Practitioner of the Year,” presented by U.S. Army MANPRINT Director, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1, Department of the Army. He has been an author or co-author on more than 25 publications.