Elizabeth Loftus is Professor of Psychology and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Washington, Seattle. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. Since then, she has published 20 books and over 350 scientific articles. Her 4th book, Eyewitness Testimony, won a National Media Award (Distinguished Contribution) from the American Psychological Foundation. One of her most widely read books, The Myth of Repressed Memory (co-authored with Katherine Ketcham), was published by the St. Martin's Press and has been translated into Dutch, Taiwanese, French, German, Japanese and other foreign languages.

Loftus has been an expert witness or consultant in hundreds of cases, including the McMartin Preschool Molestation case, the Hillside Strangler and Abscam cases, the trial of Oliver North, the trial of the officers accused in the Rodney King beating, the Menendez brothers, the Michael Jackson case, and the trial of the Marines accused of culpable negligence when they severed the cables of a ski-lift while flying in the Alps. Also, Loftus has worked on numerous cases involving allegations of "repressed memories", such as those involving George Franklin of San Mateo, California, Cardinal Bernardin of Chicago, Gary Ramona of Napa, California, and Jacob Beard - accused of the "Rainbow Murders" in West Virginia.

Loftus's research of the last 20 years has focused on human memory, eyewitness testimony and also on courtroom procedure. She has received four honorary doctorates for her research, the first in 1982 from Miami University (Ohio), the second in 1990 from Leiden University in the Netherlands, and the third in 1994 from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York - an honorary doctorate of laws. Her 4th honorary doctorate, from the University of Portsmouth in England, was awarded in 1998. She served as the 1984 President of the Western Psychological Association, as the 1985 President of the American Psychology-Law Society (DIV 41 of APA), and as the 1988 President of Division 3 (Experimental) of the APA. Finally, she was President of the American Psychological Society during 1998-1999.

In addition to the Honorary degrees, Loftus has received numerous awards and honors for her research. In 1995 she received an award from the American Academy of Forensic Psychology - their Distinguished Contributions to Forensic Psychology Award. In l996 she received the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (AAAPP) Award for Distinguished Contribution to Basic and Applied Scientific Psychology. In 1997 she received the American Psychological Society James McKeen Cattell Fellow ("for a career of significant intellectual contributions to the science of psychology in the area of applied psychological research"). She received the William James Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society in 2001 (for "ingeniously and rigorously designed research studies…that yielded clear objective evidence on difficult and controversial questions."). Finally, in 2002, she was named one of the top l00 most eminent psychologists of the 20th Century, and the top ranked woman on the list.

Last updated April 16, 2002