Jim Higgins, M.S., ATP, has accumulated over 4,000 hours in Part 121 line operations. He is a former airline captain with American Eagle Airlines. During his tenure at American Eagle, Captain Higgins served as an Initial Operating Experience (IOE) Line Checkairman. In this capacity, he supervised all flight crewmembers as they transitioned from the training environment to passenger-revenue operations. As part of his duties, he also conducted line checking events.

Captain Higgins was also the Master Executive Council (MEC) Chairman with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) at American Eagle Airlines. He was responsible for both the daily oversight and long-term strategic planning of all union activities. He concurrently served as the Chairman of the Negotiating Committee for the pilots at American Eagle Airlines.

Upon leaving the airlines and union activities, Captain Higgins joined the faculty in the Aviation Department at the University of North Dakota. He has taught the following courses:

• Crew Resource Management
• Airline Operations and Management
• Transport Category Aircraft Operations
• Advanced Aircraft Operations
• Long Range Navigation
• Airline Labor Relations and Law

In addition to his duties in the classroom, Professor Higgins also instructs in the Canadair Regional Jet Level 6 Flight Training Device.

Professor Higgins current serves as the faculty advisor for the UND Flying Team. He was the faculty advisor and Head Coach of the UND Flying Team during their National Championship years of 2004 and 2006. He has also been the faculty advisor for both SAMA and Alpha Eta Rho in pat years.

Professor Higgins is also actively engaged in research activities. He is currently participating in two funded studies which include development of an aviation crisis response manual (funded by the National Academy of Sciences) and a pilot aging study (funded by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association).

His past research has been in the realm of human performance. In addition to physiological studies, he has examined the relationship between domain experience and pilot performance. Specifically, he has attempted to quantify empirical effects between experience and pilot performance, both during emergencies and under stress.

Professor Higgins is frequently heard on CBS News Radio as an airline industry and pilot analyst offering his views and opinions regarding the airline industry and aircraft accidents.

Professor Higgins also serves as the department’s Laptop Program Director.

He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Experimental Psychology.

In his personal life, Mr. Higgins is a Numismatist (Coin Collector) specializing in the restoration of ancient coins (particularly Greek) and early American copper coins. He also enjoys chess and poker. He is an avid computer programmer/hobbyist, who likes to dabble in PHP, Perl, MySQL and other web-based scripting languages. He is married and has the world’s most beautiful baby daughter (that is his unbiased opinion of course).