No, appeal to authority *may* be a logical fallacy. It is *if* your only argument is "this one guy said so". If the "guy" actually is an authority in the area being discussed (especially if that authority is backed up by years of vetted work), then, no, it's not a fallacy.
Since you work as an academic, I'll defer to your authority! Have you ever seen this essay from SciAm? www.scientificamerican.com/blog/mind-gu...
I can agree with most of that. What I tell students is "facts" are data; stuff you measure. My shirt is blue. That's a fact. *Why* it is blue is science. We work to build a model for that. Models that remain, that aren't disproven, become theories.
original source: cup.columbia.edu/book/the-hoc...
The fallacy should be named “appeal to false or irrelevant authority”.
