Dr. Fran Pilkington-Cheney – Lecturer in Psychology and Sleep at Nottingham Trent University

Dr. Fran Pilkington-Cheney is a lecturer in psychology and sleep at the School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Fran’s primary research interests are in the management and mitigation of sleepiness and fatigue during safety critical tasks (e.g., when driving or during shift work). She is also interested in the effect of sleep on cognitive functioning and day-to-day life (including women’s health), transport safety, and human behaviour.

Fran was awarded her PhD in 2021 from Loughborough University UK, focusing on the management of sleepiness within the applied context of bus driving, with a specific focus on sugar. Fran has over 12 years of experience researching sleepiness and fatigue, both within academia and industry settings. Prior to her appointment at NTU in 2022, Fran worked at 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.

As well as teaching on a range of psychology modules at NTU, including the Psychology of Sleep, Fran is currently Co-Investigator and Project Manager of a 3yr Road Safety Trust grant (SleepiEST, 2023-2026) exploring driver sleepiness in shift workers and using this data to develop a sleepiness-risk estimation and prediction tool.

Fran is passionate about both early career opportunities and equality. Fran is current Chair of the Early Career Researcher Network (2022-2024) and sits on the Gender Equality Forum (2022- present) of the European Sleep Research Society.