Richard C. Atkinson
Staff Information
- Role
- President Emeritus
- Organization
- University of California System
- Bio
Richard C. Atkinson served from 1995 to 2003 as the 17th president of the University of California System. His tenure was marked by innovative approaches to admissions and outreach, as well as research initiatives to accelerate the University’s contributions to the state’s economy. Before UC System president, he served for 15 years as chancellor of UC San Diego, where he led that campus’s emergence as one of the nation’s leading research universities. He is a former director of the National Science Foundation, past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was a long-term Stanford University faculty member. His research in the field of cognitive science and psychology has dealt with problems of memory and cognition. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Education, and the American Philosophical Society.
