Richard C. Atkinson

Richard C. (Dick) Atkinson served from 1995-2003 as the President of the University of California system. His tenure was marked by innovative approaches to admissions and outreach, research initiatives to accelerate the university’s contributions to the state’s economy and a challenge to the country’s most widely used admissions examination – the SAT 1 – that paved the way to changes in the way millions of America’s youths are now tested for college admissions. Before becoming president of the UC system, he served for 15 years as chancellor of UC San Diego, where he led the campus’s emergence as one of the leading research universities in the nation. Dr. Atkinson 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 member of the faculty at Stanford University. His research in the field of cognitive science and psychology has been concerned with problems of memory and cognition. Dr. Atkinson is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Education, the American Philosophical Society and a mountain in Antarctica has been named in his honor. He has a Ph.D. from Indiana University.

* Title and professional details reflect status as of 7/1/2025.