Richard Atkinson, became president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); the first psychologist to hold the office since Edward Thorndike in 1934.

President emeritus of the University of California and professor emeritus of cognitive science and psychology at the University of California, San Diego, Richard Atkinson served as director of the National Science Foundation (1977-1980) and received the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1977 for 'combining the best traditions of experimental psychology with new concepts of information processing, in the advancement of psychological theory and its applications.'