I am a Lancaster County native (Conestoga Valley High) and still can’t believe that I was fortunate enough to get a job “back home” at Millersville. I received my B.S. in Biology from Penn State where I minored in Psychology and did independent study work with cognitive psychologist, Rich Carlson, who gave me an appreciation for experimental psychology.

After leaving Penn State, I replied to an ad posted by Lancaster ophthalmologist, Barton L. Halpern, who was looking for medical technicians. I spent four years with Dr. Halpern and his associates working with people who struggled with visual problems due to diseases of the eye or stroke and neurological disorders. This work showed me how much vision depends on the brain as well as the eyes. I have since worked on many projects aimed at improving the effectiveness of eye surgery by paying particular attention to the perceptual changes that can be brought about by certain procedures. Any changes to the eye, even if they result in improved visual acuity, create perceptual shifts to which the brain (and associated human) must adapt.

My experience in ophthalmology sparked a need to explore how the brain used visual information to guide behavior. I entered the behavioral neuroscience program at the University of Delaware and studied under the supervision of David Northmore. As a graduate student, I studied vision in two species of fishes to understand how they maneuver swiftly in three-dimensions without colliding with objects in the environment. Although fish are interesting in their own right, the ultimate goal is to apply this knowledge to the building of artificial visual systems for people with disabilities or robots that need to explore environments independently. I loved the interdisciplinary nature of Delaware’s program and my graduate research gave me the opportunity to work with clinical psychologists, neurophysiologists, behavioral biologists, and computer scientists. Upon completing my dissertation at UD, I spent another year there as an assistant professor teaching courses in Sensation and Perception and Neuroscience. It was during that fateful year of 2002 when I read that Millersville’s psychology department was looking for someone to teach, among other things, Sensation and Perception.

My non-Millersville time is spent with my wife, Laura, and our three children. I am also a part-part-time musician on a little mission to convince people that the best music has its roots in either the Ireland of the 1800s or the England of the 1980s. I continue to gather evidence in support of this theory.

Recent Publications

Gallagher, S.P. and Schaeffer, K.A. (In prep). An automated technique for demonstrating and standardizing the rubber had illusion. Teaching of Psychology.

The Cornea Donor Study Group. (In Press). Cornea Donor Study Donor Factors Predictive of Graft Failures. Ophthalmology.

Stoltzfus, G., Riera-Palomeque, M., Clement, W., Vredenburg, D., Gallagher, S.P., & Thyrum, E. (In revision). Gender, gender identity, and creativity. Sex Roles.

The Cornea Donor Study Group. (2008). The effect of donor age on corneal transplantation outcome results of the cornea donor study. Ophthalmology. 115(4):620-626.

Gallagher, S.P., Bartal, A.M., Whitehead, T.L., & Halpern, B.L. (2007). Pigment dispersion syndrome: An inherited form of glaucoma in a local Mennonite family. Journal of the Lancaster General Hospital. 2(3): 108-113.

Gallagher, S.P. & Northmore, D.P.M. (2006). Responses of teleostean nucleus isthmi to looming objects and other moving stimuli. Visual Neuroscience. 23(2): 209-219.