Senior Scientist and Director,
Behavioral Health & Performance Laboratory
NASA Johnson Space Center
Research Interests
Dr. Pete Roma is founding Director of the Applied Behavioral Biology Unit (ABB) at the Institutes for Behavior Resources, where he specializes in novel applications of Behavioral Economics and directs the scientific development and daily operations of research on small-group behavior and social neuroscience while contributing to IBR’s substance abuse and operational fatigue & performance research and consulting efforts. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor of Behavioral Biology in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and holds collaborative appointments with the Laboratory of Comparative Ethology at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. After successfully leading an FAA/CAMI-funded large-scale field study of operational fatigue, performance, and mood in aviation crew and earlier NSBRI-funded laboratory work on team performance management, Pete is now currently Principal Investigator of several NASA and NSBRI-funded projects exploring how small-group composition factors affect the trajectories of team cohesion, task performance, and biopsychosocial adaptation over time and in response to operational stressors. This work also includes development of assay technology for measurement and behavioral economic modeling of cooperation, productivity, and fairness behaviors in small groups in laboratory and applied settings, with studies in isolated, confined, and extreme environments such as the European Space Agency’s Concordia Station in Antarctica, the Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) facility, and NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) and Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) facilities. Over the years, Dr. Roma has authored or co-authored over 45 published articles, book chapters, and technical reports and over 95 scientific conference presentations, served as Academic Editor or invited peer-reviewer for over 20 professional scientific journals, and provided expert commentary for Discover Magazine and Scientific American.