Richard Chatham Atkinson's appointment in 1977 as Director of the National Science Foundation was an honor well in keeping with his already eminently distinguished career as an experimental psychologist, as an educator, and as an administrator. It is a career founded in the Middle West, where Richard Atkinson was born in March 1929. He was educated in his native Illinois, at the University of Chicago (Ph.B.), and at Indiana University where he earned a Ph.D. in 1955.

While a doctoral student in the Psychology Department at Indiana University, Richard Atkinson first began his important and innovative work in the development of mathematical psychology. His achievements in research since that time deal primarily with the analysis of memory and cognition, and in the development of computer-based information systems as they might apply to both psychological theory and practice. His extremely important and substantial research would be claim enough to distinction as an experimental psychologist, but Richard Atkinson's contribution to his field of speciality is even more impressive. He was instrumental in founding the Journal of Mathematical Psychology and served as its editor from 1963-1970. His many publications include not only specialized articles, but also a co-authored textbook in mathematical psychology which was the first of its kind, and one of the most widely used textbooks on general psychology.

Writing textbooks represents only one element of Richard Atkinson's contribution to education. He taught in the Psychology Department at U.C.L.A. from 1957-1961, but his teaching career has been spent largely at Stanford University, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Psychology. While at Stanford University, Professor Atkinson, in collaboration with Patrick Suppes, developed a computer-controlled laboratory for the teaching of reading skills. This laboratory is but one expression of Dr. Atkinson's constant engagement with learning skills and processes, an engagement further demonstrated in his influential series of articles on computer-assisted instruction and on the teaching of reading to children by computer.

Professor Atkinson's administrative achievements extend far beyond the duties associated with running an academic department. He has met the extensive demands on his time for service on review panels and other professional and scientific committees. He has served on a variety of editorial boards, as a consultant on research and institute committees, and as director of specially funded seminars and task forces. Moreover, Richard Atkinson has given his time and abilities as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association from 1973-1975, and as Deputy Director of the National Science Foundation from 1975-1977.

Professor Atkinson's contributions to science and to education have been nationally recognized beyond the considerable distinction of his appointment as Director of the National Science Foundation. He won a Distinguished Research Award by the Social Science Research Committee in 1962 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967. He has received many similar accolades which can best be illustrated by mentioning the three honors conferred on him in 1974. In that one year, Richard Atkinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, to the National Academy of Sciences, and to the National Academy of Education.

In 1952 Richard Atkinson married Rita Loyd, who is also a graduate of Indiana University, and who has collaborated with her husband in writing textbooks. They have one daughter.