Paul Harris & Captain Shem Malmquist

Paul Harris, CPsychol, Reg. Aviation Psychol, MRAeS, AFBPsS, MBA

Paul is a Chartered Psychologist and Registered Aviation Psychologist with significant experience working in high-consequence, complex organisations. Since 2006 Paul has worked closely with aviation organisations including FTOs, commercial airlines and military aviation operations at many stages of pilots’ careers from ab initio to type-rating and Command upgrade. He has advised to Board level on pilot selection, assessment, recruitment, development, and mental health. He is also experienced with facilitating and coaching pilots to help them to maintain mental well-being and optimal decision making. 

Following Germanwings 9525, Paul was invited by EASA as part of an international expert group to advise on recommendations for new regulations around aircrew fitness. He is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS), and in 2017 the BPS Professional Practices Board appointed him as an expert panel member and co-author of the Society’s first position paper on Aviation and Aerospace Psychology. Paul is a published author and co-author on topics including blended learning, personality of pilots and mental health of aircrew, and has spoken at events in the UK, Europe and internationally on aspects of organisational and aviation psychology. Paul’s focus is on helping individuals, teams and organisations gain practical insights to improve and develop themselves and their processes. He is a Chartered Scientist, a member of the Resilience Engineering Association, and a full member of the Royal Aeronautical Society where he is also Deputy Chair of the Human Factors in Flight Ops and Training Group.


Captain Shem Malmquist, Visiting Professor, Florida Institute of Technology

Captain Shem Malmquist is a visiting professor at the Florida Institute of Technology and an active current B777 Captain operating predominantly international routes. In addition to being an international pilot for the bulk of the last 32 years, he has taught aerobatics and instructed in a variety of both general aviation and transport aircraft. Captain Malmquist has published numerous technical and academic articles stemming from his work on flight safety and accident investigation. His most recent work has involved approaches to risk analysis and accident prevention utilizing MIT’s System Theoretic Accident Models and Processes (STAMP) and facilitating the integration of these methods on behalf of several organisations.

His past work includes Automation and Human Factors lead for the Commercial Aviation Safety Team’s Joint Safety Implementation Team, Loss of Control working group, as well as the Aircraft State Awareness working group and the Joint Implementation Measurement and Data Analysis Team. He also has either led or been deeply involved in several major aircraft accident investigations, performing operations, human factors, systems and aircraft performance analysis. He is currently researching Loss of Control accidents utilizing MIT’s STAMP methodology as well as an analysis of the UPS Birmingham accident, both of which are expected to be published in the Spring of 2019, as well as a paper on weather training and information sharing.

Captain Malmquist’s education includes a Masters (MSc) degree in Human Factors in Aeronautics through the Florida Institute of Technology, a Bachelors of Science (BSc) from Embry-Riddle University, and an Associate of Science (ASc) through Mt. San Antonio College.

He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a full member of ISASI, and a member of the Resilience Engineering Association, AIAA, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, IEEE, the Flight Safety Foundation and SAE where he also serves as a voting member of the Flight Deck and Handling Quality Standards for Transport Aircraft committee and is a member of the Aerospace Behavior Engineering Technology and the Lithium Battery Packaging Performance Committees.

In addition to his papers on flight safety and accident investigation topics, he is the co-author (with Roger Rapoport) of the book “Angle of Attack” on the Air France 447 accident and its implications on aviation safety. 

Practical Utility of Personality in Flight Ops and Training

Increasingly, commercial pilots will have to face unpredicatable, time-critical safety situations that are unlikely to be trainable for. Nonetheless they will have to optimally manage such circumstances to ensure both safety and to avoid undesirable outcomes. How can we better equip pilots and aircrew facing these challenges to maintain and improve safe thinking and decision-making? This session shows how a novel view of personality, properly understood, can offer a way forward.

Improvements and advances in, for example, evidence-based training can be helpful when facing these challenges. However accidents may occur that are unrelated to previous event data, and thus do not have a pre-exisiting evidence base. We need pilots to approach learning and expertise proactively, but instructors and training departments have observed that too many today are satisfied with only meeting the basic requirements set out by their company. Every instructor has encountered students who consistently only met the minimum standards, and it is a rare student who is truly exemplary. Why is that? Can we do better?

One of the most important influences on thinking and behaviour is personality, however it is often poorly understood. Personality ‘testing’ is also frequently associated with significant stigma. We will demonstrate that personality, once de-stigmatised, reliably measured, and responsibly interpreted can provide a powerful and practical internal toolkit for pilots. With this they can build resilience and more effectively manage themselves and their teams. This can also encourage aircrew to volunteer selected information about themselves with peers and instructors. In return, they can benefit from increasing their sense of competence, improving their abilities to optimise training efficacy, career progression, and personal effectiveness as key safety-critical personnel. This will additionally serve to strengthen the value and trust that colleagues need to see in each other in all circumstances from normal ops to emergencies.