Richard Worden PEW

Dick Pew studied at Cornell, graduating in 1956 with a degree in electrical engineering. He was Eastern Intercollegiate champion in épée in 1954-55. He just missed out on a medal at the Melbourne Olympics, tying for fourth individually. Pew served in the US Air Force at the time of his Olympic appearance. He left the military in 1958 and joined BBN (Bolt Beranek and Newman) in Boston, where he obtained a masters’ degree in experimental psychology at Harvard. From 1960-74 Pew was a psychology professor at the University of Michigan.

Pew returned to BBN in 1974, serving as a principal scientist with interests in the interface between engineering and psychology. He managed the cognitive sciences and systems department at BBM from 1975-96. He has been President of the Human Factors Society (later the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society), and in 1980 became the first chairman of the National Research Council Committee on Human Factors.

Pew received numerous awards for his scientific research. In 1980 he received the Paul M. Fitts Award of the Human Factors Society for outstanding contributions to Human Factors Education. In 1981 he was given the Franklin V. Taylor Award of Division 21 of the APA for outstanding contributions to Engineering Psychology, and in 1999, he received the Arnold M. Small President's Distinguished Service Award of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. In 2002 Pew was selected to be a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists. In 2001 the University of Michigan created a Collegiate Chair honoring him.