Trevor Owens

bio

Photo by Elaina Finkelstein/Library of Congress.

Dr. Trevor Owens is a social scientist, historian, and archivist whose work focuses on advancing understanding of the science and engineering enterprise and strengthening the role of scientific societies and cultural heritage institutions in shaping its future. In his executive leadership roles, he has built and led interdisciplinary research organizations, aligning strategy, people, and resources to deliver high-impact insights for scientific societies, policymakers, and research institutions. He brings an interdisciplinary approach that integrates social science, historical analysis, and digital infrastructure to inform decision-making and catalyze positive change across scientific communities and institutions.

Owens serves as the first Chief Research Officer of the American Institute of Physics. In this role, he leads an integrated research organization spanning statistical research, public policy analysis, and the history and culture of the physical sciences, including oversight of the Niels Bohr Library & Archives, a unique, award-winning center of excellence for collecting and preserving the history of the physical sciences. He is responsible for developing and executing AIP’s research strategy and annual research agenda, producing data-driven insights and narratives that inform leaders across scientific societies, higher education, and public policy. He leads fundraising strategy for AIP’s research and history programs, securing more than $1.5 million in external funding from federal agencies and private foundations—including the National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and Henry Luce Foundation—to support research and history initiatives. Through this work, he advances understanding of workforce trends, educational pathways, and systemic barriers to participation, while strengthening the evidence base needed to support a more inclusive and effective scientific enterprise.

He is also a Public Historian in Residence at American University, and a faculty member for California’s Rare Book School, where he teaches and engages with emerging professionals in history, archives, and digital preservation.
He serves on the advisory board of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media, on the review panel for Digitizing Hidden Collections: Amplifying Unheard Voices, as a member of the Services Consultation Committee for Library and Archives Canada, and as a member of the United States Copyright Office’s Public Modernization Committee.

Previously, Owens served as Director of Digital Services at the Library of Congress, where he led more than 100 staff and oversaw a portfolio exceeding $20 million annually. In this role, he directed enterprise efforts in collections digitization, metadata and discovery systems, digital preservation, web archiving, and public engagement, including large-scale crowdsourcing initiatives. He played a central role in advancing the Library’s digital strategy and in developing the infrastructure required to manage, preserve, and provide access to large-scale and complex digital collections.

Before joining the Library of Congress, Owens held senior leadership roles at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), where he led the National Digital Platform initiative. Under his leadership, IMLS invested more than $30 million in over 100 projects to advance the digital infrastructure supporting libraries and cultural heritage institutions nationwide. In this capacity, he helped shape national strategy for digital library development and coordinated efforts across federal agencies, foundations, and professional communities. He also contributed to the agency’s work on open government and open data, strengthening access to publicly funded information.

Owens began his career at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, where he led outreach and community engagement for the open-source Zotero research platform. In this role, he helped expand Zotero’s adoption among scholars, libraries, and cultural heritage organizations, contributing to its growth as a widely used tool for research and knowledge management.

He is the author of four books. His most recent, After Disruption: A Future for Cultural Memory (University of Michigan Press, 2024), examines how institutions can respond to ongoing technological and societal change and outlines approaches for sustaining cultural memory in the digital age. His earlier book, The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), received major awards from the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists and has become a foundational text in the field. His research and writing have appeared in venues including Science Communication, Digital Humanities Quarterly, Physics Today, Harvard Educational Review, Archival Science, Library Leadership & Management, and Curator: The Museum Journal.

His work has been recognized through a range of honors, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison Luminary Award (2025), the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology (2021), and designation as a Library Journal “Mover & Shaker” (2018). In 2022, he served as a Fulbright Specialist with the National Library of Kosovo, supporting the development of its first national digital collections strategy. He is also the recipient of the Society of American Archivists’ Archival Innovator Award.

Contacting Me: 

The best way to get a hold of me is email (trevor dot john owens at gmail dot com).  I am up for commenting on any of the areas that I work in a personal capacity. If you are a journalist on tight deadlines it will likely work best if you can email me a specific set of questions instead of trying to set up a time to talk on the phone.

Interviews and Press: 

Mentions/Quoted in the Press & Media

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