April 19th, 2017
Donald J. Foss has served as the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the University of Houston System; the Provost of the University of Houston; the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida State University; and the Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Foss completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Minnesota and was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University, at its Center for Cognitive Studies. Arriving at the University of Texas at Austin in the late sixties to develop its program in psycholinguistics, Foss along with his late colleague, David Hakes, would soon write the fundamental textbook on psycholinguistics, Psycholinguistics: An Introduction to the Psychology of Language (Prentice-Hall, 1978).
Foss’s research interests have been in cognitive psychology, specializing in language comprehension. More recently he has turned his attention to the factors that determine success in college and how to instill them in beginning college students, as demonstrated in his evidence-based book on this topic, Your Complete Guide to College Success.
Read more on Dr. Foss’ honoree page.