Skip to main content

New York Times' Best Seller Author to Speak at Fechner Day



New York Times’ Best Seller Author to Speak at UMSL| Optometry Fechner Day


The University of Missouri-St. Louis College of Optometry’s 13th Annual Fechner Day will be held on Friday, October 24, 2014 at 12:30pm in Lucas Hall Room 100.   Fechner Day is celebrated at many academic institutions including an annual international conference.  The tradition has continued at UMSL thanks to the generous support of Dean Davis.  

The College of Optometry pays tribute to Gustav Fechner (1801-1887), a German experimental psychologist, who founded psychophysics and formulated Fechner’s Law, a landmark in the emergence of psychology as an experimental science. Fechner believed that one can better understand the brain by measuring the relationship between a stimulus and behavior. He developed a variety of methods and statistical techniques to measure behavior.  Today when optometrists measure many aspects of vision including a  patient’s visual acuity, they are using one of Fechner’s methods.

This year’s guest speaker will be Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, a New York Times’ Best Seller Author who has written several books and additional publications. One of her books, Inside of a Dog spent 63 weeks as a New York Times bestseller. Her latest book Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes, was published January, 2013. Horowitz’s address to Fechner Day guest is entitled, “Examining Others’ Points of View.”    

 
Dr. Alexandra Horowitz   (Submitted Photo)

Dr. Alexandra Horowitz is a professor of psychology at Barnard College, Columbia University; she earned her Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at the University of California at San Diego. The Horowitz Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard conducts research on a wide range of topics, including, lately: dog olfaction; inter-species play behavior; and attributions of secondary emotions to dogs. 


In addition to many scholarly articles relating to dog behavior and cognition, she is author of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know (Scribner, 2009), On Looking: Eleven Walks with Expert Eyes (Scribner, 2013) and editor of Domestic Dog Cognition and Behavior (Springer-Verlag, 2014).

Dr. Horowitz has appeared in Time Magazine, The New Yorker Magazine, Science Magazine, Smithsonian, and appeared on ABC's "Nature's Edge"

Currently, Dr. Horowitz is testing the olfactory acuity of the domestic dog, through experiments in natural settings, and examining dog-human dyadic play behavior.  



To learn more about Dr. Horowitz you can visit her website.


The event is free and open to all faculty, staff, and students of the University of Missouri- St. Louis.  Following the lecture, guests can enjoy German chocolate cake in honor of Fechner Day.







Photo by: Dr. Alexandra Horowitz.

sources:   https://psychology.barnard.edu/profiles/Alexandra-Horowitz
                http://insideofadog.com/

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Heart of America: A Great Annual UMSL Tradition

The 56th Annual Contact Lens & Primary Care Congress presented by the Heart of America Contact Lens Society was, once again, a great success and represented a great opportunity for College of Optometry students and residents to network, present posters, receive high quality continuing education, and help as monitors and graduates to have the opportunity to see their classmates and enjoy, not only the expansive exhibit hall but also customize their education based upon the five tracks of courses given simultaneously.  The faculty included two UMSL graduates, Drs. Rebecca Wartman(‘87) and Shane Kannarr(‘00) and Assistant Dean, Dr. Ed Bennett.  Likewise, the Heart of America Board of Directors had a significant UMSL presence with Drs. Sean Mulqueeny(‘91), Wes DeRosier(‘96) and President Craig Brawley(‘01).  Dr. Delaram “Deli” Shirazian(’16), currently completing the Kansas City Veteran’s Administration Medical Center residency program, was a recipient of a $2,000 grant from
4 comments
Read more

Student Completes PhD in Vision Science

PhD Student in Vision Science Leaves Mark at UMSL-College of Optometry   Dr. Christopher Putnam Our vision for our future is only as bright as our dedication to achieving our goals and experiences.  On the fourth floor Marillac hall is an office; it’s not a faculty office, but a graduate office, a room for the last three years that has been occupied day and night and even on the weekends by one man, Dr. Christopher Putnam.   Dr. Putnam is not only an optometrist, but also a major with the United States Air Force. Major Christopher Putnam, OD, FAAO began his journey at UMSL-College of Optometry in August 2011 as a member of the PhD Vision Science program under the direction of Research Professor, Dr. Carl Bassi.  His journey to UMSL has taken him all across the country and now he is beginning the end of his PhD in Vision Science and he will be the last student at UMSL to take part in this program. The road to UMSL began in September 1996 at South Dakota University where h
Post a Comment
Read more

Patient Care Center Grand Opening and Continuing Education Event a Success

The Patient Care Center has been open to the public since mid-September and recently celebrated the Grand Opening ceremony on Friday, November 4 and also a continuing education program on November 5, 2016. The Grand Opening ceremony included keynote speakers, Dean Larry Davis, Laurie Thompson (’16), Barbara Brown (’88), and Chancellor Thomas George.     The event attracted many present and former UMSL administrators, including former Chancellor Blanche Touhill. Several political leaders attended to celebrate the grand opening. Dr. Thompson and her husband, Chris, traveled from their home in Colorado, specifically for this occasion. Thompson was an instrumental student leader whose efforts were important in gaining student approval to fund the project.   Following the grand opening event on Saturday, the college hosted a five-hour specialty contact lens symposium with lectures on gas permeable and presbyopic lenses from UMSL faculty members, Ed Bennett, Julie DeKinder
4 comments
Read more