Josh Owen was born in the United States in 1970. The son of an archaeologist, he spent the summers of his youth on excavations in the Middle East learning from direct observation and participation in the mining of history through the lens of its material remains. No wonder that he makes a career of thoughtfully adjusting our built environment to suit an appropriate world view. Owen holds a BFA in Sculpture and a BA in Visual Studies from Cornell University and an MFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has also studied at Tel Aviv University and Cornell University's program in Rome. In 1998 Owen established his design studio in Philadelphia, PA. After teaching as an adjunct professor for several years, he became an assistant professor of industrial design at Philadelphia University in 2001. In 2002, he was the youngest designer to be included in the critically acclaimed American Design, 1975-2000 at the Denver Art Museum. In 2003, Owen was recognized by Surface Magazine as one of the most avant-garde industrial designers in the U.S. As a result, his work was celebrated and exhibited in that year's Salone Internazionale del Mobile in Milan, Italy and at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. In 2004 he was included in The Museum of Modern Art's Design Encyclopedia and in 2005 the monograph "Josh Owen: Big Ideas / Small Packages" was published by Woodsphere. In 2006, his academic design studio coursework from Philadelphia University was selected for inclusion in the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City. In 2007 he was made associate professor and academic coordinator of the Philadelphia University study abroad program in Milan, Italy. In 2008 Owen was named the Craig R. Benson Chair for Innovation at Philadelphia University and, in addition to his work at Philadelphia University, began teaching as a lecturer in the graduate department of architecture at The University of Pennsylvania School of Design where he developed programming that served the design, engineering and business schools under the umbrella of Integrated Product Design. Owen enjoyed many successes at Philadelphia University including building a study abroad program in Milan Italy, curating three exhibitions at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City and authoring the now well-known "Build" studio, which has created a method of nurturing students into projects with mass production outcomes. Having laid down firm roots in the Philadelphia community, Owen helped usher Designphiladelphia into the national spotlight. Serving for five years at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as Collab's Education Chair, he directed the Collab Student Design Competition. In 2010, Owen accepted a position as associate professor of industrial design at The Rochester Institute of Technology. He teaches in both the graduate and undergraduate areas, developing innovative programming across disciplinary lines most notably under the umbrella of the newly formed Vignelli Center for Design Studies. Owen's professional studio's client list includes such notables as Areaware, Casamania, Kikkerland and Umbra. His projects are included in numerous books on design and are regularly featured in such international design magazines as AT Maariv, Abitare, Artravel, Blueprint, Clear, Design, DIID, Dwell, Ego, Elle UK, Graphis, Frame, ID, Interni, Intramuros, Lucky, Luna, Maison Francaise, Metropolis, Metropolitan Home, Ottagano, Readymade, Step Inside Design, Surface, Vogue Taiwan, as well as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Viewpoint. Owen has been the winner of three Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Awards. He has also been the recipient of the ID Annual Design Review Award, the international Design Award, as well as nominations for the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design and the Athena Emerging Designer Award. He has shown his furniture, lighting and product designs in numerous solo and group exhibitions including 100% Design (Tokyo), 100% Design East (London), the Salone del Mobile (Milan), the Salon du Meuble (Paris), the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (New York) and the exhibition, "Josh Owen: Big Ideas / Small Packages" in Philadelphia. Owen's work is included in the permanent design collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the musee des beaux-arts de Montreal, the Denver Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Chicago Athanaeum and the National Museum of American Jewish History. While deeply engaged in his work at RIT, Owen's studio practice continues as it always has, now located where he lives in a small village with his wife and two children, a few miles along the Erie Canal from his office at RIT.