9/24/2007 - APA honors Ludy Benjamin with lifetime achievement award

The Society for the History of Psychology, a division of the American Psychological Association (APA), has honored Ludy T. Benjamin Jr., professor of psychology, with a 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award.

The presentation ceremony took place during the APA annual meeting last month in San Francisco. Benjamin received the award for his research in the history of psychology, for educating students in the history of psychology, and for his service to the society.

“To receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from this group is a great honor for me,” Benjamin said. “Many of the previous recipients of this award are historians who brought me into the field and who nurtured and shaped my work in important ways.”

In teaching psychology, Benjamin believes history is of the utmost importance.

“I have taught the undergraduate course on the history of psychology for 38 years and the graduate course for 28 years,” Benjamin said. “Over this time the most frequent refrain from students has been that the course served to integrate their knowledge of psychology, that it provided a framework that linked so many disparate ideas into a meaningful whole.”

In October, Benjamin will deliver a keynote address for the annual Best Practices Conference on the Teaching of Psychology in Atlanta on the importance of history as a capstone course for undergraduates in psychology.

Benjamin joined Texas A&M University as a psychology professor in 1980. His research has focused on the history of applied psychology, particularly clinical and industrial-organizational psychology, and on the history of popular psychology. He earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at Texas Christian University.

Several awards have recognized Benjamin for this teaching at Texas A&M. He is a Glasscock Professor of Teaching Excellence (1996-present) and a Presidential Professor of Teaching Excellence (2003-present). In 2000-2005, he held the Murray and Celeste Fasken Chair in Distinguished Teaching.

During his career, Benjamin has authored or edited 17 books and more than 140 journal articles and book chapters. He has also delivered 68 invited and keynote addresses at professional meetings, as well as four international addresses. He is currently on the editorial board of the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.