Dr. Pnina Gershon is a Research Scientist at MIT AgeLab, Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), where she leads research on driving safety and human-vehicle interaction. She co-directs the Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium and leads the naturalistic driving research team. Gershon is also a member of the New England University Transportation Center and a Faculty Associate at the B3 DrivSim Lab, Department of Emergency Medicine at the UCI School of Medicine. With a strong foundation in Human Physiology, Dr. Gershon brings a unique health-oriented lens to transportation safety, bridging the fields of mobility, health, and well-being to support safer, more human-centered transportation systems. In her work, Gershon leverages behavioral analytics, advanced statistical modeling, and AI/ML tools to provide theoretical and applied insights that shape the future of advanced vehicle technologies. With a focus on high-risk driver populations, her research delivers actionable safety solutions for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and technology developers.
Dr. Gershon earned her doctorate degree in Industrial Engineering and Management from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. Prior to joining MIT AgeLab in 2019, Dr. Gershon worked at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where her population-level studies extended the understanding of how health factors impact driving safety. Her research on teen drivers covered a wide range of topics, including the assessment of crash risk and risky driving behaviors, distracted driving and visual inattention, speeding, and street racing. She also studied how mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD lead to cognitive distractions and a higher risk on the road, including risky driving behaviors and crash risk. These studies provide the basis for developing targeted interventions for highly vulnerable populations.
Gershon has long been fascinated by human sensing and perception – and how to leverage the understanding of these capabilities to develop technologies that enhance human performance, satisfaction, and, ultimately, safety. At Carnegie Mellon University, Gershon’s work brought together experimental psychology and human-computer interaction to develop assistive technologies that enhance health and well-being across the population. She developed and evaluated refreshable tactile displays, providing the foundations for systems capable of conveying graphical information to individuals who are blind. Gershon also developed computational models of human hand-motor control, offering insights into how physical interaction evolves from purely biomechanical factors to voluntary control. These models support the design of haptic-based assistive technologies and have the potential to detect atypical motor patterns—such as those seen in individuals with dyspraxia or Parkinson’s disease—track disease progression, and assess the efficacy of treatments, including nerve regeneration and rehabilitation therapies.
Gershon has consistently emphasized the importance of mutual awareness between humans and technology—ensuring that both entities are attuned to each other’s states to enhance collaborative performance and safety. This principle has been central to her research on driver monitoring technologies and the detection of and response to driver impairment, ultimately shaping the development of effective countermeasures. Utilizing high-fidelity driving simulations, Gershon has conducted extensive assessments of drivers’ states, focusing on impairments related to substance use (marijuana, alcohol, and opioids), fatigue, cognitive load, driver distractions, and in-vehicle tasks. To evaluate the driver state and quantify changes in driver behavior, Gershon integrated a variety of physiological measures—including heart rate variability (HRV), electroencephalography (EEG), and eye tracking, along with cognitive and performance metrics. As part of the European Commission-funded project 2BeSafe, Gershon also contributed to the development of a novel conspicuity aid based on the Phi Phenomenon—a visual illusion of motion—to increase the detectability of motorcyclists.
Gershon is actively involved with the National Academies of Sciences Transportation Research Board, contributing her expertise to committees on Operator Education and Regulation, Vehicle User Education, and the Young and Old Driver Subcommittees. Dr. Gershon received the NIH Fellows Award for Research Excellence (2018) and the NICHD Collaboration Award (2017).
