Dr. Lawless is a Professor of Food Science and Director of Graduate Studies for the Field of Food Science at Cornell University. He is also a member of the Graduate Field of Psychology. Dr. Lawless’s research focuses on perception of taste, smell and texture in foods and model systems as well as applied research in sensory testing methods and psychological factors affecting sensory judgments. He supervises the department sensory testing facility and acts as a consultant to student and faculty projects involving sensory evaluation of foods.
Dr. Lawless joined the faculty of Cornell in 1989. Prior to that time he worked as a product evaluation specialist for S. C. Johnson Wax for five years. His postdoctoral work was done at the U. S. Army Natick Laboratories, and he performed basic research in taste and smell for four years at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Between Natick and Monell he served as a visiting scientist at the General Foods Technical Center in Tarrytown, NY. He was awarded a Fullbright fellowship for sabbatical study at the University of Helsinki in 1995, and was a William Evans Visiting Fellow at the University of Otago, New Zealand, later that year. . He received his B. A. (cum laude) from Yale University in 1974, and Ph.D. from Brown University in 1978, both in Experimental Psychology.
Dr. Lawless is author of the widely adopted textbook, Sensory Evaluation of Foods, Principles and Practices, with Professor Hildegarde Heymann of the University of California, Davis. He teaches Sensory Evaluation of Foods, Advanced Concepts in Sensory Evaluation, and Flavors: Analysis and Applications. He was Chair of the Sensory Evaluation Division of IFT in 1991-92 and division newsletter editor for three years. He served on the editorial boards of Chemical Senses, Food Quality and Preference and the Journal of Sensory Studies.