[visionlist] [cvnet] Eileen Kowler's passing

[Andrew Watson]

My first memory of Eileen was at the ARVO annual meeting in Sarasota, as one of the troupe of brilliant young eye movement scientists in the lab of Bob Steinman. I would at the time always compete with Bob for the best room at the Three Crowns Hotel on Lido Beach. So while I regarded her as being in the enemy camp, relations were cordial, even friendly. Our friendship was significantly enhanced when, years later, we both became parents of twin girls. From then on, each year at ARVO or later VSS, our morning beach running paths would intersect, we would pause to share the progress of our lives, and of our daughters. 

As the years passed Eileen’s scientific stature grew, until she was without question a preeminent authority on eye movements and vision. When we launched the Journal of Vision in 2001, we invited Eileen to serve as our first editor in the area of eye movements. She soon became an invaluable resource, and was subsequently appointed Associate Editor. Her correspondence with me on sometimes contentious issues was always calm, reasonable, generous, and thoughtful. She was a perfect editor. She remained on the board until her passing.

In 2017 a small band of VSS stalwarts travelled to Washington DC for the March for Science. Eileen, of course, was there, and kept up our spirits in the pouring rain (Figure 1). 

In 2020 she became the President of the Vision Sciences Society, just as the Covid Pandemic was devastating the conference landscape. Together with past and future presidents David Brainard and Laurie Wilcox (Figure 2), she fearlessly navigated the perilous virtual sea, and brought us all to a safe harbor as the pandemic subsided.

Her persona was difficult to describe but unmistakable. Her strong voice booming from her small frame, her special accent and tone, her confidence leavened with humility, and always, always, her sense of humor.

It is a small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless, to know that as recently as a year ago she was a Keynote speaker at a major conference. She left us as she was with us, engaged, energetic, endearing, and inspiring.

-Beau

Andrew Watson 
Chief Vision Scientist
 Apple | Display Technologies
abwatson at apple.com



> On Jan 1, 2025, at 1:30 PM, Jacob Feldman via cvnet <cvnet at lawton.ewind.com> wrote:
> 
> I am very sorry to share the news that our dear colleague Eileen Kowler passed away on December 30, 2024. Eileen was a brilliant scientist whose work on eye movements, attention, and visual perception was creative, far-ranging, and rigorous. After receiving her Ph.D. at U. Maryland - College Park in 1978, she was a postdoc at NYU. In 1980 she joined the faculty at Rutgers, where she remained until her passing. At Rutgers, she was a visionary leader, most conspicuously in group research and mentorship projects such as the NSF IGERT in Perceptual Science. Under her leadership, the PerSci project led to many fruitful and rewarding collaborations among psychologists and computer scientists at Rutgers, which continue to the present day. Beyond Rutgers, Eileen's contributions were widely recognized. She was a section editor at Journal of Vision, and from 2021-2022 served as president of the Vision Sciences Society. She was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2013. 
>  
> One of Eileen's greatest passions was mentorship, especially of graduate students. Her efforts in this area were recognized in 2013 when VSS awarded her the inaugural Davida Teller award in recognition of both scholarship and mentorship. More recently she served as Senior Associate Dean of the graduate school at Rutgers, an office that allowed her to champion the interests of graduate students throughout the university. But her advocacy for younger colleagues was perhaps most keenly felt by her own students and junior colleagues, whose lives she touched in so many ways. 
>  
> An obituary can be found at this link <https://www.msmc.us/obituaries/Dr-Eileen-Kowler?obId=34261674>. (https://www.msmc.us/obituaries/Dr-Eileen-Kowler?obId=34261674)
>  
> Jacob Feldman
>  
>  
>  
> 
> 
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