Peter Venables

Peter Venables (1923-2017) was a British psychologist who was the founder and former head of the department of Psychology at the University of York. He retired in 1988 to become Emeritus Professor at the University of York, where he continued to research.

Venables was a former President of the British Psychological Society (1979-1980), the Society for Psychophysiological Research (U.S., 1977-1978), and the Experimental Psychology Society (U.K., 1968-1970). His awards included one for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology (U.S., Society for Psychophysiological Research, 1987), the Zubin Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Discipline from the Society for Research in Psychopathology (U.S., 1990), Honorary Membership of the Experimental Psychology Society (U.K., 1993), an award from the British Association for Cognitive Neuroscience for Outstanding Contributions to British Psychophysiology (UK, 2009), and most recently the Lifetime Achievement Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge (British Psychological Society, 2014).

Venables published over 260 journal articles, book chapters, and books. Three of his articles have been recognized as citation classics. His contributions in the fields of schizophrenia and psychophysiology embraced a wide range of topics that included clinical, cognitive, neuroanatomical, psychophysiological, and neurodevelopmental issues.