Olofson Interested in Infant Development

At first glance, Eric Olofson looks more like an extreme sports athlete than a family man. Although he does enjoy mountain biking and skateboarding, the new tenure track psychology professor has a unique professional interest.

"I study infants, and I love babies!" Olofson said, "I am the kind of guy who you will see at the grocery story waving at a baby and the parents are thinking to themselves, ‘What is this scary guy with a tattoo and big earrings doing looking at my baby?’"

Born and raised in the Seattle, Washington area, Olofson has come to Wabash after stops in North Dakota, Minnesota, and Oregon.  He has studied the social cognition of infants, which studies how infants connect average everyday tasks, and verb accusation in 18 to 36 moth old babies.  His research is in a field that is dominated by women and one that not many guys usually look into; especially men with the physical domineer of Olofson.

Olofson graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where he studied Psychology and Philosophy. After graduation, Olofson spent a year with AmeriCorps VISTA helping underprivileged children by creating and directing "Linking Up," a mentoring program between 6th graders and college students at Concordia College. AmeriCorps VISTA is a service organization that is designed to fight poverty. Olofson focused on low socioeconomic and ethnic students.  

"My motivation for doing AmeriCorps," Olofson said, "was because I actually grew up very poor. It was my way of reaching out to a population of which I was a part of at that age."
 
He was the first member of his immediate family to go to college and wanted to help other underprivileged children get excited about the prospect of going to college. Olofson’s time with the AmeriCorp was very rewarding for him and one he would encourage others to look into.  Following his time with AmeriCorp, Olofson adventured to Oregon University for his master and doctorate degrees.

Olofson is excited about the close professor/student relationship because it was that same relationship that he benefited from at Concordia College.  "I think what I bring most to Wabash," Olofson said, "is this real excitement about working with students and getting them involved with empirical research and really getting the love of not just learning the answer."

He is definitely a unique man who has many interesting hobbies including mountain biking, skateboarding, cooking and a coffee junkie who roasts his own coffee and has very strong beliefs about roasting and brewing. He just bought a new house close to campus where he lives with his wife Kari, who he married the same weekend as his graduation from Concordia College.

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