Dr. Fran Pilkington-Cheney

Fran Pilkington-Cheney is a Lecturer in Psychology and Sleep at Nottingham Trent University, UK. Her research focuses on sleepiness and fatigue within safety critical tasks, for example during shift work and in transport safety. Fran’s PhD research explored the management of sleepiness within the applied context of bus driving, with a specific focus on the use of sugar.

Fran gained a BSc in Psychology at Loughborough University, UK and worked for several years as a researcher in industry, focusing on fatigue risk management particularly within aviation. In 2018, she joined the Transport Safety Research Centre at Loughborough University, and was involved in numerous projects exploring sleepiness and fatigue in real-world settings, for example in tunnelling and construction, London city bus drivers, and in the context of driver state monitoring, fatigue detection and intervention, and fitness-to-drive. In 2019, she was selected to attend the 2nd ESRS sleep science school on sleep and ageing. Fran began her lectureship in 2022.

Fran is a member of several societies including the British Sleep Society, the Working Time Society, the Women’s Higher Education Network, Maia: Loughborough Women’s Network, and the British Psychological Society. Fran joined the ESRS ECN committee in 2020 during the virtual 25th congress of the ESRS, and was elected as Chair of the ECN in 2022. Additionally, in 2021, she was selected to join the Gender Equality Forum (GEF) taskforce of the ESRS.