Richard was committed to the passionate pursuit of knowledge. Richard has been a valued member of this department since 1976 and rose through the ranks over the years, becoming a Full Professor. Richard was truly a renaissance man with interests that ranged from the effects of marijuana on cognitive abilities to analysis of individual differences in cerebral organization to the developments of three-player chess. He is, of course, most identified with creative and important developments in statistical analysis. An entry for him in Wikipedia notes that he was one of the pioneers in latent semantic analysis. He made two extremely important contributions to psychometrics, dealing first with the analysis of asymmetric square tables and second, in the analysis multiway tables. His work on PARAFAC is used in biomedical applications, chemometrics and wireless communications. One external reviewer of his work noted that “ He is one of the most influential quantitative methodologists in the past 30 years….he is a fundamental thinker, not distracted by appearances of currently fashionable approaches. He is always walking a few steps ahead of most of us”. Another noted: "His work is well known..his presence and influence looms large and he basically single handedly started the complex discussions about uniqeness several years prior to receiving his PhD."

We, and the scientific community, not only have lost a major contributor to theory, we have also lost a truly gentle man- a man playful with ideas, kind-hearted and generous. The world is diminished with his passing.

Dr. Richard Allan Harshman is survived by his wife Elizabeth Hampson and was the cherished son of Allan and Louise Harshman and son-in-law of John and Margaret Hampson. Richard was also the dear brother of Susan (Greg) Liddle and dear brother-in-law of Cheryl (Ken) Haddrell, Crystal and Mark. He leaves behind many valued friends and colleagues at U.W.O.

A link to Richard's research is provided here.

A graduate scholorship has been set up in in memory of Dr. Harshman. Donations will be gratefully accepted for the

Richard A. Harshman Graduate Scholarship
c/o Foundation Western
University of Western Ontario
London Ontario, Canada
N6A 3K7
or by calling 519-661-3140.

Dr. Keith Humphrey
1948-2004

On the morning of Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Keith Humphrey, Professor of Psychology and one of Canada’s best-known vision scientists, passed away after a long illness. Keith made important empirical and theoretical contributions to many areas of perception, from visual development in infants to the neural substrates of high-order vision.

He is perhaps best known for his work on visual aftereffects and the influence of viewpoint on object recognition. Keith's work on all these problems was characterized by creative and elegant experimentation.

Few of his colleagues at Western, however, knew about Keith's musical talents, but those of us lucky enough to be there when he got out one of his treasured guitars were treated to guitar playing that was remarkably fluent and soulful. During his band-playing days, Keith pursued his undergraduate studies at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, where he majored in Psychology and Philosophy.

The University experience had transformed him. Although music was still important, scholarship and science became Keith's primary passion. In 1972, Keith left New Brunswick and headed west to the University of British Columbia where he took up graduate work in Psychology. Keith completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Richard Tees, studying how the integration of auditory and visual information develops in young infants. As a postdoctoral fellow working with Peter Dodwell and Darwin Muir at Queen's University, Keith met his wife Diane, who was finishing her Ph.D. He persuaded her (among other things) to work together with him in Peter and Darwin's baby lab.

Soon after, Keith took up a post as assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Lethbridge. Their son, Jonah, was born shortly after they arrived. When Jonah was a young boy, Keith so much wanted to be involved in everything that his son did that he volunteered to coach the soccer team that Jonah played in.

Keith gave up a tenured position at Lethbridge to take a job as a sessional lecturer in the Department of Family and Commercial Studies in the University of Guelph. But then, in 1986, he landed a job as assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Western. His reputation preceded him. The Lethbridge folks were still talking about this great prof who knew everything there was to know about visual perception, was a terrific teacher, had a great sense of humour, and, if that wasn't enough, played a mean blues guitar. Western had the good fortune to have Keith as a member of faculty for nearly twenty years. Keith's knowledge of perception – and cognitive psychology in general – was legendary.

Keith was a founding member of the Group on Action and Perception (GAP), a research team funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health. Indeed, his skills in psychophysics and high-level vision were an invaluable part of GAP's research effort. It was Keith who came up with the research question that drove GAP's initial foray into functional brain imaging – and the publication that came out of that first experiment marked the beginning of the great adventure in cognitive neuroscience that continues to this day at Western.

Keith was an inspiring teacher. The students loved the lecture – largely because of Keith's endearing and slightly eccentric display. Keith's enthusiasm was infectious – and he turned many bright young students towards a career in research.

*Excerpts from a Western News article written written by Mel Goodale a psychology professor, colleague and lifelong friend of Keith Humphrey.

Dr. Nancy
Innis
1941-2004

Prof. Nancy Innis, Department of Psychology, passed away at the age of 63 on August 17 while traveling in Tibet with a colleague.

Nancy, a faculty member at Western for 30 years, received her BA and MA from the University of Toronto and PhD from Duke University.

After two years at Dalhousie University, Nancy came to Western where her research included the history of psychology, focusing on early theories of animal learning and cognition.

Nancy was a former historian of the International Society for Comparative Psychology, editor of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship newsletter, consulting editor for the American Psychological Association Journals and editorial board member for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies Journals.

In remembrance of Nancy, a tree was planted on campus and a fund established to support a yearly prize to be awarded to the student who writes the best essay in Nancy's "history of psychology" course.

Donations towards this award can be sent to:

Room 270, Stevenson-Lawson Building
The University of Western Ontario
London, ON
N6A 5B8

*With excerpts from Western News Article by Communcations Staff Aug. 24, 2004.

Dr. Douglas Jackson
1929-2004