Professor Lawrence (Larry) Weiskrantz was the Chair in Experimental Psychology and Head of the Department between 1967 and 1993. He fought energetically and successfully to build and entrench the study of psychology as a scientific discipline at Oxford, and to lead our Department into its modern age.
Professor Weiskrantz’s research focused on the areas of the brain that support our ability to perceive and interpret the visual world and to remember what we perceive, identifying and making major breakthroughs with regard to the phenomenon of ‘blindsight’ and convincingly demonstrating the existence of implicit long-term memories. His work was honoured by his election as a Fellow the Royal Society, the European Academy and the American National Academy of Sciences, while Professor Weiskrantz was also the founding president of the European Brain and Behaviour Society and a president of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. As Professor Kia Nobre commented, “we shall remain forever grateful to Larry for all his dedication and contributions to our department”.
He died in Oxford in January 2018 after a short illness. On Friday 8 June 2018, colleagues from Experimental Psychology and from far afield gathered together to commemorate his academic life and legacy (1926-2018). He remains a giant in our discipline, having played a pioneering role in unveiling implicit perception and memory.
Recordings of the talks given at his memorial service are available at https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/news/celebrating-the-life-and-legacy-of-professor-larry-weiskrantz.
