Dr. Neil Charness is currently Professor of Psychology in the Psychology Department at Florida State University and an Associate of the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State University. He received his BA from McGill University, Montreal in 1965 and his MS (1971) and PhD (1974) from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.

His research interests involve age and human factors and age and expert performance. His research is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Aging) and from a supplement to the NIA grant from NIOSH.

Dr. Charness served as Editor for the Psychology Section of the Canadian Journal on Aging/revue canadienne du vieillissement, and on the Editorial Boards of Psychology and Aging, Psychological Bulletin, and Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, and as Chairperson of the Editorial Board for Gerontechnology.

He served on the Boards of the Canadian Association of Gerontology, the Canadian Psychological Association (Chair of the Section on Adult Development on Aging), and as Program Chair for the American Psychological Association's Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging).

Dr. Charness has been elected Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association (Division 20), the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Psychological Society. He currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee studying Health and Safety Issues for Older Workers.

His current research within the CREATE project concerns the characteristics of people and input devices that enable effective use across the life-span. One line of research compares direct (e.g., light pen) and indirect (e.g., mouse) positioning devices; another investigates the efficacy of speech recognition software and desktop videoconferencing. Dr. Charness has published his research in over 70 articles and book chapters and has made over 150 presentations at scientific conferences and invited research seminars.