F&M Stories

Fred Owens graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in 1972 with honors in psychology. In 1978, after earning a doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Penn State and undertaking NIH-funded post-doctoral research at MIT, he returned to F&M as a Professor, specializing in the study of perception. In the 40 years of his remarkable career, Professor Owens has emerged as one of the most accomplished scholars in his field. He has authored more than 100 articles and chapters in the discipline's most prestigious outlets, has been awarded a bevy of fellowships and grants that render him one of the most funded members of the faculty, and has held prestigious fellowships in outstanding research centers throughout the country and around the world.

During his tenure at F&M, Professor Owens was awarded the coveted Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1986 and was subsequently appointed the distinguished Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology. From 1994 to 1997, Owens served as Chair of the Department of Psychology. A strong advocate of interdisciplinary studies, he collaborated with a few colleagues to create the College's unique program for the Scientific and Philosophical Studies of Mind and was able to guide the development of that program as chair from 1998 to 2001. He was also a founding member and regular contributor to the program in the Biological Foundations of Behavior. In 2001, Professor Owens was appointed Associate Dean of the Faculty, a role that he carried with great pleasure and some success from 2001 to 2005. Following that assignment, he was honored to serve as the Mentor for F&M's second Posse of amazing young scholars from New York City. A regular participant in Faculty Governance, he was elected by the Faculty for two periods of service on the Professional Standards Committee, and also served on the Educational Policy Committee, and the Faculty Council.

Beyond the College, Professor Owens has served as a member of Editorial Boards for the flagship journals in perception, experimental psychology, and transportation safety, and he has been an ad hoc reviewer for a dozen professional journals—spanning the fields of optometry, the history of psychology, perception and psychophysics, vision research, and ophthalmology. In addition, he enjoys the distinction of being among the foremost authorities on the application of laboratory research to perceptual problems in locomotion and driving, and for this reason, serves as a consultant and expert witness for the legal community throughout the United States.

For more than 40 years, Professor Owens has delighted F&M's faculty and students with the extraordinary reach and depth of his knowledge, his warm and all-embracing spirit, and his renowned abilities as a wise, compassionate, and marvelous story teller. No one who has known him can ever forget his smile, his laughter, and his no-nonsense insistence on clear thinking, solid evidence, and mature engagement with matters of knowledge, learning, and research. Indeed, he will ever be remembered—with deep gratitude, enduring admiration, and joyful delight.

Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology, D. Alfred Owens, Class of 1972