Dr. Karlene Ball, an experimental psychologist, is currently the Director of the UAB Edward R. Roybal Center for Research on Applied Gerontology, funded by the National Institute on Aging, and is Associate Director of the university-wide Center for Aging. Dr. Ball recently chaired the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Technical Group on Aging, and she is a member of the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council. Dr. Ball is investigating visual and cognitive correlates of mobility difficulties among older adults, with an emphasis on driving skills. She has served frequently on expert panels charged with setting the vision standards for commercial and older drivers, and she has authored numerous publications on visual, attentional, and cognitive changes with age, as well as on the identification of at-risk older drivers. She recently received a M.E.R.I.T. award from the National Institutes of Health to extend her basic research program on the everyday activity problems of older adults to the development of interventions to prevent or retard age-related declines. A further description of the UAB Roybal Center, along with its investigators, resources, and projects, may be found at www.uab.edu/roybal.
