Richard atkinson lawyer

American educational psychologist and academic

Richard Chatham Atkinson^[2] (born March 19, ) is an American professor of cognitive science and psychology and an academic administrator.^[3] In a career that has ranged beyond traditional disciplines and challenged long-settled views about learning, he has combined theoretical insights with practical applications in American classrooms.

He is president emeritus of the University of California system, former chancellor of the University of California, San Diego, and former director of the National Science Foundation.^[4][5]

Biography

Early years

Atkinson was born on March 19, , in Oak Park, Illinois, to Herbert and Margaret Atkinson.&#;He earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and a Ph.D.

at Indiana University.&#; After serving two years in the U.S. Army, Atkinson joined the faculty at Stanford University in &#; Except for three years at UCLA, he served on the Stanford faculty from to

Stanford University

At Stanford University he held appointments in the Department of Psychology, School of Engineering, Graduate School of Education, and Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences.

In the mids, he began publishing a series of papers with his graduate students and postdoctoral fellows that formed the basis for a general theory of memory. The most important of these was a article called “Human Memory: A Proposed System and Its Control Processes,” co-authored with his graduate student, Richard Shiffrin. One of the most cited publications in the behavioral and cognitive sciences over the past five decades, it still receives about citations a year.^[6]

The Atkinson-Shiffrin paper proposes a memory system whose structure is fixed (sensory register, short-term store, long-term store) but whose control processes (encoding, storage, retrieval, and decision rules) are variable.

The two authors describe a theory from which one can derive formal models to predict an individual’s performance on a variety of memory tasks. Their approach brought together the emerging fields of mathematical psychology and computer modeling to offer a cognitive view of memory. &#;

The general theory has withstood critical challenges and been considered the standard by which others are measured.

Memory and Cognition devoted a special issue in to “Five Decades of Cumulative Progress in Understanding Human Memory and Its Control Processes Sparked by Atkinson and Shiffrin ().”^[7]&#;In , Journal of Memory and Language republished the paper, accompanied by an article on its historical significance.^[8]

Another focus of Atkinson’s research, conducted with his Stanford colleague Patrick Suppes, concerned developing computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to teach mathematics and reading to young children.

Richard c atkinson biography templates wikipedia: H elevated engineering to a full directorate at NSF to reflect its importance to science and the nation. UCSD's faculty expanded by nearly 50 percent and enrollment doubled to about 18, students. In other projects. Atkinson is married to psychologist, Rita, with whom he has one daughter, retired neurosurgeon Lynn.

An example is a program for teaching reading in grades K&#; A “response history” is maintained on each student and continually updated. Built into the program is a model of the learning process that analyzes each student’s response history to make moment-by-moment decisions as to what should be studied next to optimize the student’s performance.

Atkinson and Suppes later founded Computer Curriculum Corporation, the first company to introduce computers into the classroom.

While at Stanford, Atkinson served as founding editor for the Journal of Mathematical Psychology.

Richard c atkinson biography templates download He subsequently became chairman of the Department of Physics and then senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs. Richard Atkinson, Robert Dynes, and V. H elevated engineering to a full directorate at NSF to reflect its importance to science and the nation. As president, Atkinson had to face some of the most contentious and complex issues in American higher education, from achieving diversity to managing a multi-billion dollar budget greater than that of many states.

He was also chair of the Mathematical Social Science Board of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, which ran summer institutes (among other activities) for advanced doctoral students interested in learning about mathematical models in the behavioral and social sciences.

In , Atkinson and his wife, Rita Loyd Atkinson, joined their Stanford colleague, Ernest Hilgard, as authors of the textbook Introduction to Psychology.

&#;They ceased being authors with the publication of the 12^th edition, and in later editions the title was changed to Atkinson and Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology.&#; Atkinson’s scientific work has been translated into nine languages, including a Russian and a Chinese translation of his collected papers.

National Science Foundation

In , Atkinson took a leave of absence from Stanford to begin a temporary appointment as deputy director of the National Science Foundation (NSF). His career took a different course when he agreed to remain at NSF, serving first as acting director () and then as director () appointed by President Jimmy Carter.^[9]

Atkinson’s task was to lead the Foundation through what one commentator called “a rebuilding from the ravages of the Nixon anti-science era.”^[10] Skeptics in Congress and the media often attacked basic research, most of it conducted in universities, as a drain on public money that produced few practical results.

Senator William Proxmire’s Golden Fleece Awards for waste and fraud in public programs were the best-known examples; NSF received several. In Congressional testimony and in the press, Atkinson defended the integrity of NSF’s peer review process and the seminal role basic research plays in laying the groundwork for advances in science and technology.^[11]

He believed just as strongly that forging a closer relationship between universities and industry was crucial to the future of American science.

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This became a major goal of his NSF tenure and produced a series of steps designed to translate conviction into action:

• Established the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Program at a time when collaborative research between private companies and universities, now accepted, was rare;
• Initiated a special program at NSF to fund research on the relationship between investments in research and economic growth, an early contribution to the field of economics known as “new growth theory”;
• Elevated engineering to a full directorate at NSF to reflect its importance to science and the nation;
• Advocated with Congress for legislation giving companies a tax credit for investing in their own research and for supporting university research;
• Began a series of policy studies that led to the Bayh-Dole Act, a landmark piece of legislation that transferred the intellectual property rights in federally sponsored research from the U.S.

  government to universities.^[12]

In his role as NSF director, Atkinson also negotiated the first memorandum of understanding between the People’s Republic of China and the United States, an agreement for the exchange of scientists and scholars. It became part of a more comprehensive agreement on science and technology between China and the United States signed by President Carter and Chairman Deng Xiao Ping during the Chairman’s historic visit to the United States in January ^[13]

UC San Diego

As chancellor of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) from , Atkinson instituted a major administrative reorganization and launched a sustained effort to strengthen UC San Diego’s ties with the city of San Diego.^[14] This effort yielded dividends in the form of financial and community support, with private giving rising dramatically during his chancellorship.

Despite a series of tight budgets in the late s, he found innovative ways to fund the construction of new buildings and support new academic programs. UCSD’s faculty expanded by nearly 50 percent and enrollment doubled to about 18, students. Early in his tenure, consistent with his views about the value of engineering at NSF, he established a school of engineering that has become one of the national leaders in the field.^[15]

Atkinson encouraged technology transfer and active involvement with industry, especially with the small, high-technology companies that were forming around San Diego in the s and s.

In , UC San Diego Extension began the UCSD CONNECT program, which became a model for preparing entrepreneurs in high-technology fields to launch start-up companies.^[16] UCSD’s outstanding faculty, innovative research, and commitment to industry-university partnerships were key to transforming the San Diego region into a world leader in technology-based industries.^[17]

A few years after Atkinson’s arrival at UCSD, a member of the Harvard University faculty, Lee H.

Perry, sued him in San Diego Superior Court. Represented by the “palimony” attorney, Marvin Mitchelson, Perry claimed she had an intimate relationship with Atkinson that resulted in a pregnancy, and that Atkinson persuaded her to have an abortion, promising that he would have a child with her at a later time. Her lawsuit alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and deceit.&#; Before trial, the Superior Court granted Atkinson’s motion for summary judgment on the fraud and deceit claim as initially filed, and his demurrer to the claim as amended.

In , the case went to trial on the remaining issue of emotional distress. Atkinson settled without admitting liability. In , the Court of Appeal affirmed the Superior Court’s earlier dismissal of Perry’s fraud and deceit claim. In , the Supreme Court of California denied her petition for review, which effectively ended the case. &#;Atkinson’s support on the campus and in the San Diego community weathered this difficult moment in his career.^[18]

UCSD’s election to the Association of American Universities, composed of the nation’s top research universities, had been early evidence of its rising academic status.

The National Research Council’s report on the quality of graduate programs in U.S. universities ranked the scholarly and scientific caliber of UCSD faculty and its graduate offerings tenth in the nation, higher than any other public university except UC Berkeley.^[19]

University of California System

The University of California Board of Regents chose Atkinson as the seventeenth president of the UC System in August of &#; A month earlier, after a prolonged and passionate debate within the University, the Regents had approved SP-1, a ban on racial and ethnic preferences in admissions.

UC immediately found itself at the center of a national controversy over the Regents’ action.^[20]

The end of affirmative action presented Atkinson with two crises at the outset of his presidency. One was an internal conflict over shared governance with the Academic Senate, which felt the ban had been adopted without adequate faculty consultation.

The other was a torrent of public and legislative criticism as news of the Board’s decision began to reach wider audiences in California and beyond.

Atkinson’s first step was to initiate an in-depth review of UC admissions in light of the University’s changed circumstances. The goal was to ensure that its policies and practices, while meeting the requirements of SP-1, would also continue to be “demonstrably inclusive and fair.” &#;The result of this review, approved by the Academic Senate and the Regents, was a broader, more flexible perspective on evaluating readiness for college.

&#;Along with the usual grades and test scores, the undergraduate admission process now included consideration of students’ “opportunity to learn,” defined as the educational, economic, or social difficulties the student had faced during schooling and evidence of persistence in working toward high academic achievement.

In addition to these policy changes, the Regents’ resolution called on the administration to consult with various UC constituencies on developing “proposals for new directions and increased funding” to raise the UC eligibility rate of minority and other underrepresented students.

The result was the report of the Outreach Task Force, presented to the Regents in July ^[21]

A critical issue looming behind this assignment was the University’s relationship with the K public schools. There were differences in organization and mission on both sides. California’s vast K system was the largest in the country, and the schools were confronting formidable educational and fiscal challenges of their own.

The odds of making a real difference in raising the academic preparation of K students, and thus the UC eligibility rate, were distinctly uncertain.

The decision was to embark on what became the most ambitious school-university partnership in the University of California’s history. Working with teachers, principals, and administrators in schools across California, UC expanded its existing outreach programs and created new ones, concentrating especially on districts with high proportions of educationally disadvantaged students.

&#;For several exciting years, the partnership generated widespread enthusiasm and a promising start on improving the academic performance of California students. &#;Atkinson and the University had legislative support and an ally in Governor Gray Davis, who made school reform a priority of his administration. &#;At his request, the University established several leadership and professional development institutes designed to serve K teachers and administrators.

In , UC’s school/university partnerships reached more than 97, students in schools, and at the end of Atkinson’s tenure in , UC was admitting more minority students than it had in , the year before the affirmative action ban took effect. Yet the potential for even greater gains faded in the early s, when a deep recession and the return of budget austerity put an abrupt end to essential State funding for outreach.

The intense focus on access, student preparation, and admissions policies was a hallmark of the Atkinson administration.&#; But it was not the only issue on the president’s agenda.

In his first year as president, Atkinson established the Industry-University Cooperative Research Program (IUCRP), an investment in research partnerships with industry in disciplines essential to California’s high-tech economy.

The program’s emphasis on promising early-stage research ripe for practical application, unusual at the time, was directed at stimulating California’s productivity and competitiveness. In the same spirit, Atkinson committed the University to addressing a crisis in the state’s supply of highly trained engineers and computer scientists.

UC enrollments in these disciplines rose by nearly 70 percent—the first real growth in the state’s programs in engineering since the Terman Report virtually ended expansion of engineering education in California.^[22]&#;Both IUCRP and the engineering initiative drew on Atkinson’s NSF and San Diego experience. But they also reflected a broader view—that the accelerating demand for applications of knowledge has made today’s research universities, widely considered the best in the world, more essential to American life than ever before.

Governor Davis proved to be as supportive of UC research as he was of its outreach efforts with the schools. In , he asked the University to establish four new research enterprises on its campuses, the California Institutes for Science and Innovation. Their mission is to generate discoveries ripe for application in the fields of biomedicine, bioengineering, nanosystems, telecommunications, and information technology through partnerships with the state’s entrepreneurial industries.

For more than two decades, the institutes have been devoted to creating the economy of the future and contributing multidisciplinary solutions to large and complex social challenges.^[23]

For the first time, private donations reached the billion-dollar mark in a single year. UC’s State budget nearly doubled, and federal research funds soared.

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Total enrollment increased by a third, from , to , The University added several new professional schools and began expanding its graduate enrollment.

Under Atkinson’s leadership, the University adopted a new academic freedom policy that clearly defined the central role of the faculty in protecting and promoting the freedom to teach, to do research, and to express ideas.

He established the California Digital Library to make UC’s systemwide collections accessible to a wider audience and to advance new forms of scholarly communications.

And in a surprising reversal, the Board of Regents voted unanimously to rescind SP-1 at its May meeting. Two motivations stood out in the Regents’ decision.

Richard c atkinson biography templates free Biography [ edit ]. He is past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, former chair of the Association of American Universities, the recipient of many honorary degrees. However, he does fall under the category of "cognitive psychology," who take a very particular stance on this debate, known as and "interactionist" position. The decision was an abrupt surprise as Atkinson only a week earlier had told The San Diego Union-Tribune he would be "honored if the name were approved" [1].

The passage of Proposition , which eliminated racial and ethnic preferences in all State entities, including the University of California, meant SP-1 had become redundant.&#; More troubling to some Regents was the concern that the policy “may have created the perception that underrepresented students were unwelcome at the University.” The Board’s resolution reaffirmed the Academic Senate’s authority over admissions standards and UC’s responsibility for selecting a diverse and highly qualified student body.^[24]

Regental decisions and California’s tumultuous politics created the SP-1 controversy, an issue Atkinson was obligated to address.

But there was another educational issue he considered important enough to raise on his own initiative:&#; the year dominance of the College Board’s SAT in college admissions. In a February speech at the American Council on Education, he announced he was recommending elimination of the SAT as a requirement for admission to the University of California.^[25]

His challenge to the SAT was an instant sensation in higher education and a large segment of the public.

His case against the test was not an argument against all standardized testing and the useful role it plays in admissions. It was an objection to the flawed assumption that the SAT, a test claiming to measure general ability, can accurately predict readiness for college-level study. Students, he argued, should be tested on what they have actually learned in school, not on “ill-defined notions of aptitude.” His challenge led to an extended national conversation on standardized testing in general and the SAT in particular.

Although the College Board responded with several revisions of the test, the changes, in Atkinson’s view, have not altered its basic design or made it a fairer gauge of student achievement. The debate over the use and abuse of standardized testing continues today.

Post-retirement

After retiring from the presidency in , Atkinson became chair of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education and served in that position until &#; The division, part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, works to advance the frontiers of the behavioral and social sciences and their applications to public policy.

Atkinson and his wife, Rita Loyd, met in graduate school at Indiana University and were married until her death on Christmas Day ^[26]

Honors

Atkinson is widely recognized for his accomplishments.

Richard c atkinson biography templates printable His research on mathematical models of human memory and cognition led to additional appointments in the School of Engineering, the School of Education, the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Laboratories, and the Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences. Snow Herbert Klausmeier Robert L. Pressey William Brownell B. Wayne Kennedy Biography Richard C.

He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Education (NAEd), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.&#; He is past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, former chair of the Association of American Universities, and the recipient of many honorary degrees.

The National Science Board selected him for the Vannevar Bush Award in for his contributions to the scientific enterprise.&#;A mountain in Antarctica is named in his honor.

A collection of Richard Atkinson’s Presidential and Scientific Papers is available through the California Digital Library at

Selected bibliography

Chapters in books

• Atkinson, Richard C.

  (), "A theory of stimulus discrimination learning", in Arrow, Kenneth J.; Karlin, Samuel; Suppes, Patrick (eds.), Mathematical models in the social sciences, Proceedings of the first Stanford symposium, Stanford mathematical studies in the social sciences, IV, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, pp.&#;–, ISBN&#;.

• Atkinson, Richard C.; Shiffrin, R.M.

  (), "Human memory: A proposed system and its control processes", in Spence, K.W.; Spence, J.T. (eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory (volume 2), New York: Academic Press, pp.&#;89–

• Atkinson, Richard C.; Wilson, H.A. (), "Computer-assisted instruction", in Atkinson, Richard C.; Wilson, H.A.

  (eds.), Computer-assisted instruction: a book of readings, New York: Academic Press.

Journal articles

References

Further reading

• "Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards for ," American Psychologist, January , pp.&#;49–
• William J. McGill, "Richard C. Atkinson: President-Elect of AAAS," Science, Vol. , July 29, , pp.&#;–
• Richard C.

  Atkinson, "The Golden Fleece, Science Education, and US Science Policy," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. , No, 3, September , pp.&#;–

• "Developing High-Technology Communities: San Diego," report by Innovation Associates, Inc., for the U.S. Small Business Administration, March
• Patricia A.

  Pelfrey, A Brief History of the University of California, Second Edition, (Center for Studies in Higher Education and University of California Press, ), pp.&#;78–

• David S. Saxon, "Foreword," The Pursuit of Knowledge: Speeches and Papers of Richard C. Atkinson, ed. Patricia A. Pelfrey (University of California Press, ), pp. ix-xi
• Patricia A.

  Pelfrey, The Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, , (University of California Press, ).

External links