Charles L. Owen is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Design, one of the six academic units of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. There, Mr. Owen conducts research and teaches semi-annually in the MDes, MDM and PhD design graduate programs.

He joined the IIT faculty in 1965, following studies for degrees in chemistry and product design, additional studies in city planning and computer science, and four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy. Since then, he has worked in the fields of product design, design planning, computer-supported design, design methodology and design theory. He directed the Product Design program for 20 years, founded and directed the Design Processes Laboratory for 14 years, published the Design Processes Newsletter for 10 years, and has consulted over the last 20 years with the U.S. Air Force, Doblin, Steelcase, Kohler Company and Protohaus DTB.

He has acted as advisor to several universities in the U.S. and abroad, and has served or now serves on the advisory boards of several journals: Visible Language (U.S.), Design Recherche (France), Design Studies (U.K.), ARCOS (Brazil), Asia Design Journal (Korea), Journal of Design Excellence (Malaysia) and the Wiley International book series on design.

Professor Owen has written a number of computer programs for business and institutional applications, has published widely (over 125 articles, papers, books and book chapters), has served on international juries, and has been an invited lecturer at over 200 institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Among many awards his students have won are two Grand Prizes in the Japan Design Foundation’s International Design Competition, the Grand Prize in Sony Corporation’s International Design Vision Competition, and the 1991 Grand Award in the Environmental Technology category of Popular Science Magazine’s "The Year’s 100 Greatest Achievements in Science and Technology". In 1990, he was the recipient of the American Center for Design’s Education Award for his contributions to design history, theory and practice. In 1995 he was honored by IIT with recognition as Distinguished Professor of Design. In 1997, he was elected Honorary Member of the Japanese Society for the Science of Design, the first in its 44 year history. In 1999 the Institute of Design honored his work with the establishment of an endowed Chair in his name, and he was named one of 36 "IIT People of the Millennium" by the university for his contributions. In 2007 he was named Honorary Fellow by the international Design Research Society.

He is an international consultant to industry and institutions on the concept development process and Structured Planning.