Rachael Wynne is a Senior Research Assistant in the Transportation Research Group (TRG) within the Faculty of Engineering and the Environment at the University of Southampton, UK. She received First Class Honours in Psychology from the Australian Catholic University (ACU) in 2012. After this she began work as a Research Assistant for the University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia) and ACU. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education from Central Queensland University and held various Psychology teaching roles at ACU, USC, the University of Southern Queensland (Australia), and the University of Otago (New Zealand).

In August 2016, Rachael commenced her PhD studies at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems at USC (submit for examination in 2020). Her thesis covered the validity testing of common research methods and application of these methods to study visual attention in learner drivers. In 2017 and 2018 Rachael represented USC at the Asia-Pacific Finals of the 3 Minute Thesis competition, having placed first at the USC competitions.  Alongside this, she worked as a Research Assistant in the Centre on projects investigating visual attention of novice and experienced drivers, beach driving, design of CCTV networks, and hazard perception in cyclists.

Her primary research interests centre on the intersection of Human Factors and cognitive psychology – specifically the way experience and expectation influence our interactions with the environment, and the subsequent effect that has on our attention and memory.

Rachael joined TRG in January 2020 to work on the Innovate UK funded Open Flight Deck project, exploring ways to optimise the future aviation environment.