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Robert Bruce Voas (born February 21, 1928) is a psychologist who made important contributions to the development of the American space program and subsequently to highway safety research. ^[1] He was a key figure in the selection and training of the first seven NASA astronauts. In 1958, he became the Head Astronaut Training Officer and Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center. He later worked closely with Sargent Shriver in the development of the Peace Corps, the American agency for voluntary service in developing countries. Since 1968 he has been engaged in research and policy advocacy in the field of road safety, particularly on driving under the influence of alcohol. ^[2] According to the Governors’ Highway Safety Association, “Dr. Robert B. Voas is one of the most well-respected and influential traffic safety researchers in the country.” ^[3]

Early life and education

Voas was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1928. His father was a school psychologist.

He studied at the University of Chicago (earning a bachelor of philosophy degree in 1946) and subsequently at UCLA, where he obtained BA and MA degrees in psychology and a PhD in experimental psychology in 1953. When the Korean War started, Voas accepted a commission in the US Navy, where he worked in ergonomics, which includes human engineering, man-machine systems, and selection and training.

US Navy

Following a year at the U.S. Navy Electronics Laboratory (1954) as a Research Associate, Voas was assigned to the Navy Research Center, School of Aviation Medicine, at Pensacola, Florida (1955-57). Pensacola was the flight training center for the Navy. The Center had a small psychology research laboratory that was studying the issues of selecting naval aviators.

Voas moved to the Navy Medical Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland (1957-58), where he headed the Behavioral Research Branch. He worked for Captain Norman Lee Barr, who was conducting research on monitoring physiological responses in high-altitude balloon pilots. The balloons could reach altitudes up to 100,000 feet, where the pilots were potentially exposed to conditions similar to those in outer space. When the American space program started, its staff had extensive engineering expertise but little capacity in human factors and aviation medicine. The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) turned to the armed forces for this medical expertise. Because Captain Barr was the Navy’s leading expert in high-altitude medicine and Lieutenant Voas was his principal assistant, Voas was transferred to the space program.

NASA

Voas joined NACA in September 1958, just prior to the establishment of NASA on October 1, 1958. Voas became the Head Astronaut Training Officer.

As part of the Space Task Group, Voas helped conceptualize the criteria for the selection of the original seven astronauts for Project Mercury. In January 1959, Voas—along with Stanley C. White and William S. Augerson—screened 508 service records and found 110 men who met the minimum standards to become an astronaut. ^[4] The list of names included 5 Marines, 47 Navy aviators, and 58 Air Force pilots. The group of 110 was divided into three groups, but by the completion of round two, there were enough volunteers that group three was never called. Through testing, these 69 men were further pared down to 32 and then to 18. By the middle of April, America’s first 7 astronauts had been selected. ^[5]

Voas became the Training Officer for Project Mercury and Assistant to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center.  He supervised the training of the seven astronauts. The astronauts were exposed to every imaginable experience they might encounter during space flight: the parabolic flights in the bay of a cargo plane simulated weightlessness; centrifuge tests exposed the pilots to the high acceleration (g forces) of the launch phase of a space flight; and altitude-control simulations honed their ability to keep the spacecraft from tumbling across the three dimensions of pitch, yaw, and roll. ^[6] The training was designed to demonstrate that the project was safe and that NASA was ready to fly. It also had to satisfy President Eisenhower, who did not want manned space flights to go forward until it was proven safe. ^[7]

Voas wrote the Project Mercury Astronaut Training Program, the first of its kind, which was presented at the Symposium on Psychological Aspects of Space Flight held in San Antonio, Texas, May 26-27, 1960. ^[8]

On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard was launched into space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3. Although this 15-minute sub-orbital flight, less than a month after the Soviet Union put Yuri Gagarin in orbit, seemed unimpressive, it showed that Americans were still in the space race. In July 1961, astronaut Gus Grissom repeated Shepard’s brief hop into space. After several delays, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in February 1962. ^[9] Voas wrote the June 1962 cover story for National Geographic magazine on Glenn's three orbits in Friendship 7. Between 1961 and 1963, six manned spacecraft flew as part of Project Mercury. Many years later, Voas received the W. Randolph Lovelace Award for Significant Contribution to Aerospace Medicine.

Voas later proposed the selection process for the Gemini astronauts as well as the training requirements for flights to the Moon. ^[10]

John Glenn’s campaign manager

As the first American to orbit the Earth, John Glenn became a national hero. He was over 40 by the end of the Mercury program and he felt that his chances of getting another space flight were limited. He was interested in politics and world affairs, so he decided to leave NASA to run for the Senate in Ohio. ^[11] Voas, who had become a close friend, worked as Glenn’s campaign manager for an unsuccessful race in 1964. ^[12]

Peace Corps

Peace Corps, the US agency that sends volunteers to work on projects in developing countries, was established by President Kennedy in 1961. Voas worked as the Deputy Director of the Office of Selection from 1965 to 1968. ^{[13] [14]} The agency’s policy was to limit appointments to four years to prevent bureaucratic ossification, so Voas moved at the end of that period.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

In 1966 the U.S. Congress passed the legislation establishing the agencies that in 1970 became the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The bureau was still being organized and had a relatively small staff when Voas joined in 1968. He was attracted by its strong emphasis on alcohol and highway safety; a report to Congress on “Alcohol and Highway Safety,” prepared by Haddon and Borkenstein, concluded that alcohol was the major factor in fatal crashes.

Voas served as NHTSA’s manager of the Alcohol Safety Research program and as Deputy Director, Evaluator, and Chief Scientist for the $88 million federal ASAP initiative, the first national community alcohol and highway safety program funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. He later served as Director of NHTSA’s Office of Program Evaluation. ^[15]

A working group headed by Voas developed the Alcohol Safety Action Program (ASAP), under which communities could apply for funding. Significant reductions occurred in both the number of high-blood-alcohol-content drivers identified at road checks and in the number of fatal nighttime crashes following program implementation.

In 1969, while at NHTSA, Voas introduced the first handheld fuel-cell breath-test devices to the United States and managed the development of national standards for evidential breath-test devices by the Bureau of Standards, the National Safety Council, and NHTSA. He also prepared the first scientific paper on alcohol safety interlocks (1969) and later, with his associate Dr. Paul Marques, prepared the current NHTSA model standards for interlock devices (1992). ^[16] He also initiated the practice of using roadside breath-test surveys to evaluate safety programs and managed the first national roadside survey (1973). ^[17]

Voas was influential in guiding Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the major lobbying group, toward evidence-based policy positions. MADD is responsible for pushing forward the majority of progressive legislation on alcohol road safety in the past 30 years. ^[18] Voas was a member of the MADD National Board from 1982 to 1993 and served as an advisor to the Vice President and later to the President of MADD. He was subsequently appointed to the MADD National Advisory Committee. Voas was also instrumental in establishing the “Rating the States” (RTS) Program of MADD, which brought public attention to how far state governments were going to combat alcohol-impaired driving. ^[19] More than 60 million Americans saw or heard a news story related to the program, which proved to be an effective strategy for prompting state legislatures and governors to enact new policies.

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

After leaving government service in 1982, Voas was a senior research scientist with the National Public Service Research Institute and the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. ^[20] He served as the Principal Investigator on more than two dozen research contracts for the Department of Transportation (DOT), including several national studies of various sanctions (jail, treatment, vehicle impoundment and forfeiture, and interlocks) for impaired-driving offenders. He conducted studies for NHTSA on the effectiveness of a number of types of alcohol safety legislation such as per se laws, .08 BAC laws, minimum legal drinking age laws, and zero tolerance laws for underage drivers. He also was the Principal Investigator for the 1996 National Roadside Survey.

In 1990, he became a senior member of the scientific team that conducted the NIAAA Community Trials Project with responsibility for the alcohol and highway safety component. ^[21] He was subsequently Principal Investigator on grants concerning the impact of the zero-tolerance law in California, cross-border binge drinking by American youths in Mexico, environmental interventions on college campuses to reduce binge drinking, and the development of intervention programs for DUI offenders in interlock programs.

Voas and colleagues evaluated the impact of the minimum legal drinking age, the .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit, and administrative license revocation for drivers over the limit.

Awards, honors and recognition

The International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS)

Voas was President of ICADTS from 1989 to 1992.

In 2000, he received the Widmark Award from ICADTS, presented by the King of Sweden. It is the highest honor of the International Council, conferred on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to our basic knowledge of the effects of alcohol and other mood-altering drugs on traffic safety. ^[22]

Voas received the Borkenstein Award of ICADTS in 2013. ^{[23] [24]} It recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to international cooperation in alcohol and drug-related traffic safety programs.

Senior Scientist Research and Mentorship Award (K05)

In June 2003, Dr. Voas received a K05 award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) ^[25], which is granted to “outstanding scientists who have demonstrated a sustained, high level of productivity and whose expertise, research accomplishments, and contributions to the field have been and will continue to be critical to the mission of the particular NIH center or institute.” ^[26]

Trailblazer Award

In 2007 Voas received the Highway Safety Trail­blazer Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the field, from the Governors’ Highway Safety Association. ^[27] The award honors an individual for sustained outstanding leadership in endeavors that significantly improve highway safety. The citation described him as one of the most well-respected and influential traffic safety researchers in the country, noting research projects including national studies of the effect of .08 BAC laws, zero-tolerance laws, vehicle sanction laws, alcohol ignition interlock laws, and studies of underage binge drinkers crossing the border to Tijuana. He was credited with working to translate his research into practice: when a positive effect was identified, he organized efforts to have the strategy, law, or program implemented in other states and communities.

Personal life

Voas married Carolyn Merry, who was also at UCLA, in 1953. They have two children: David Voas and Jeanette Voas.

Bibliography

Voas has published more than 300 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, given more than 200 presentations to various groups on his research findings and written close to 100 study reports to the government.

References