Featured ILS Alum: Dr. Trevor Owens
Major(s) / Certificate(s): History & the History of Science and a Certificate in Integrated Liberal Studies.
- Year of undergraduate graduation: 2006
- Current job and anything you’d like to share about your current role: I recently started a new job as the first Chief Research Officer at the American Institute of Physics. In this new role I will be supporting a team of social scientists, historians, policy analysts, librarians, and archivists collaborating with scientists to advance, promote, and serve the physical sciences for the benefit of humanity.
- Any previous jobs, further education, or other experiences that have been meaningful to you: I’ve worked on outreach for open source software tools at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, as a program officer for digital library initiatives at the U.S. Institute of Library and Museum Services, and in a number of roles with digital collections and digital strategy at the Library of Congress. I also have a master’s degree in American History and a Ph.D in education from George Mason University.
- Ways in which ILS has helped to bring you to where you are today: The ILS certificate program played a key role in helping me develop the kind of integrative thinking that has been critical to the interdisciplinary work that has been central to my career. Beyond that, the encouragement and financial support that I got to engage in this kind of work through the Ruth Knatz Memorial Prize similarly played a key role in setting me on my career path.
- Do you have any advice for current students? Stay curious and explore connections between a wide range of issues and subjects. Invest in building relationships with your peers and mentors. Build and maintain sustainable healthy habits and routines. Keep a journal where you reflect on things on at least a weekly basis. Keep track of things you are grateful for and reflect on them often. Consult with your old journals every few months and think about where you have been and where you are going. Read widely. Seek out a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives and points of view and a mix of contemporary fiction and non-fiction and historical works in what you read. Think long term and think about how you can connect with your networks to make the world more just and
You can also find a great interview with Trevor where he talks about the impact of the ILS Program!