Thomas D. Wickens, an emeritus professor of psychology at UC Berkeley, died Dec. 16 at home in San Francisco after a three-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Professor Wickens was 70.

Professor Wickens had a long career on the faculty at UCLA and in 2002 became a full professor of psychology at Berkeley. His specialty was mathematical models in psychology. Professor Wickens had a considerable reputation in academic circles, and he published more than 50 papers on psychological subjects in scholarly journals.

He was born in Madison, Wis., in 1942, and received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard in 1964, a master's degree in experimental psychology from Brown University and his doctorate from Brown in 1968.

After a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford, he joined the faculty at UCLA and remained there for 33 years, most recently as a professor of psychology. He then joined the faculty at Berkeley and retired in 2011 after the onset of ALS.

The onset of a muscular degenerative disease that left him unable to talk or move was particularly difficult for Professor Wickens, as he was fond of opera and travel and greatly enjoyed hiking and pack trips in the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada.

He is survived by his wife, Lucia Bogatay of San Francisco; a brother, Chris Wickens, of Boulder, Colo.; and several nieces and nephews.

A celebration of his life will be held Sunday, Jan. 13, at his home in San Francisco. For information, telephone (415) 826-3395.

Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: cnolte@sfchronicle.com