Elizabeth Loftus, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, as part of the psychology department’s distinguished speaker series will appear tonight at the Memorial Union.

Gary Wells, professor of psychology, said Loftus is one of the most sought-after speakers in psychology today. “She’s a prominent expert in human memory and her work has been instrumental in showing how people can develop false memory from things.”

Graduating with highest honors in Mathematics and Psychology from UCLA in 1966, Loftus also received her MA in psychology in 1970 and her Ph.D. in psychology in 1970, from Stanford.

She was a visiting professor at Georgetown, Harvard and National Judicial College at the University of Nevada and has received many honors and awards.

Loftus has published hundreds of articles and more than 20 books, including “The Myth of Repressed Memory” published in 1994. She is known as one of the world’s leading authorities on human memory and has testified as an expert witness for the defense in trials of repressed memories of traumatic abuse, according to a press release.

“She has done some of the most important experiments on [false memory] over the years,” Wells said.

“Loftus is nearly a household name in the legal world.” Especially among defense attorneys who use her to “…explain to a jury how eye witnesses may have the facts wrong,” Wells said.

Loftus’ speech “Crimes of Memory” is sponsored by the psychology department and Committee on Lectures and will take place Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.