page_title: Ray David Owen
section_title: Career at Caltech
hierarchical_section_title: Ray David Owen / Career at Caltech
caption_attribution_description: English: California Institute of Technology Professor Ray D. Owen
context_page_description: Ray David Owen was a teacher and scientist whose discovery of unusual, “mixed, ” red blood cell types in cattle twins in 1945 launched the fields of modern immunology and organ transplantation. Owen's 1945 findings were published in the journal Science. This observation demonstrated that self was “learned” by the immune system during development and paved the way for research involving induction of immune tolerance and early tissue grafting. When Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Sir Peter Brian Medawar were awarded their 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance, Owen was not mentioned in the prize. However, in a letter to Owen, Medawar stated that he believed Owen should have also been included in the prize. Owen also led the successful effort to admit women as California Institute of Technology undergraduates.
context_section_description: Caltech offered Owen an assistant professorship in biology in 1947. He earned full professorship in 1953 and was named professor emeritus in 1983. From 1961 to 1968, Owen served as chairman of the Caltech Division of Biology.
  While Owen maintained an active research program, his teaching, mentoring and administrative undertakings became an important part of his academic career. Owen co-authored (with Adrian Srb) "General Genetics", published in 1952. It was the most widely read genetics textbook of its time.
  In the early 1960s Owen chaired Caltech's ad hoc “Committee on the Freshman Year.” The committee's recommendations were adopted in 1964, including a pass/fail grading system for freshmen and the introduction of electives into the freshman curriculum. This committee also worked to allow women admission at Caltech; the university's first female undergraduate students enrolled in 1970. Owen also served as vice president for student affairs and dean of students from 1975 to 1980.
  He was a supportive mentor and teacher to all learners. In an interview with the University of Wisconsin, Owen's son David opined that his father's rural upbringing influenced his career in many ways –- his work ethic, his skill at working with animals, and his support for women, minorities and other who faced undue obstacles on the path to careers in science. “He knew that talented people come from all backgrounds,” David Owen stated.
caption: Owen in 1986
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