Integrated Safety Support

Biography for Dr. Stuart Baulk, PhD.

Consultant & Systems Designer

Dr Stuart Baulk has over 12 years of experience conducting scientific research to investigate sleep, fatigue and performance in simulator, laboratory and field studies. His specialised area is Driver Fatigue. Stuart became one of the first 'Fatigue Experts' registered by the Australian National Transport Commission in February 2009.

Stuart completed a BSc degree with honours in Psychology at Loughborough University in the UK, before continuing to study for a PhD at the Loughborough Sleep Research Centre, where he conducted experiments to investigate countermeasures to sleepiness while driving.

In 2002, Stuart relocated to Adelaide, Australia, and began working as a post doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Sleep Research, University of South Australia. During this time, Stuart ran numerous field studies to investigate sleep, fatigue, performance and workload throughout the Australian rail industry and also including trucking and mining/smelting operations.

From 2004-2008, Stuart also worked with clinicians at the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health at the Repatriation General Hospital. His work there first investigated the combined effects of sleepiness and alcohol on driving ability in young adults, and more recently a larger, 3-year project funded by the Australian government to investigate driving impairment in patients with Sleep Apnoea. This work also prompted invited reccommendations from Stuart and his collaborators, for the Australian National Health and Medical Research guidelines on responsible alcohol consumption, and the Tasmanian Law Reform on Driver Fatigue.

KEY PUBLICATIONS (please contact stuart@integratedsafety.com.au for more information)

• Dorrian, J., Baulk, S.D. & Dawson, D. Work hours, workload, sleep and fatigue in Australian Rail Industry employees. Applied Ergonomics (In Press, 2010).
• Vakulin A, Baulk SD, Catcheside PG, Antic, N, van den Heuvel CJ, Dorrian J, McEvoy. Effects of Alcohol and Sleep Restriction on Simulated Driving Performance in Untreated Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2009; 151(7): 447-455.
  
• Baulk, Fletcher, Kandelaars, Dawson & Roach. A Field Study of Sleep and Fatigue in a Regular Rotating 12-hour Shift System. Applied Ergonomics, 2009; 40(4): 694-8.
• Baulk, Biggs, Reid, van den Heuvel & Dawson. Chasing the Silver Bullet: Measuring Driver Fatigue using simple and complex tasks. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 2008; 40: 396-402.
• Biggs, Smith, Dorrian, Reid, Dawson, van den Heuvel & Baulk. Subjective sleepiness & driving performance: Can sleepy drivers accurately predict driving performance after caffeine? Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 2007; 63(6): 573-7.
• Vakulin, Baulk, Catcheside, Anderson, van den Heuvel, Banks & McEvoy. Effects of moderate Sleep Deprivation and Low dose alcohol on driving simulator performance and perception measures in young men. Sleep, 2007; 30(10): 1327-33.
• Fletcher, McCulloch, Baulk & Dawson. Countermeasures to driver fatigue: a review of public awareness campaigns and legal approaches. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 2005; 29: 471-6.
• Horne & Baulk. Awareness of Sleepiness when Driving. Psychophysiology, 2004; 41(1): 161-5.