Sample Biographies
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Robert A. Bjork Wendy Castleman Robert Hoffman Mark McDaniel Gregory E. Monaco |
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Helga Noice Victoria Romero Ann Speed Gordon Willis Dan Wright |
Robert A. Bjork
Professional Biography: Robert A. Bjork (Ph.D., Stanford University; B.A., Minnesota) is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research focuses on human learning and memory and on the implications of the science of learning for instruction and training. He has served as Editor of Memory & Cognition (1981-85); Editor of Psychological Review (1995-2000); and Co-editor of Psychological Science in the Public Interest (1998-2004). His positions of leadership include President of the American Psychological Society (APS); President of the Western Psychological Association; Chair of the Psychonomic Society; Chair of the Society of Experimental Psychologists; Chair of the Council of Editors of the American Psychological Association (APA); and, currently, Chair of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology. He is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society. He is a recipient of UCLA's Distinguished Teaching Award; APA’s Distinguished Scientist Lecturer Award; and APA’s Distinguished Service to Psychological Science Award.Personal Statement: I find the puzzle-solving aspects of research most interesting; I have done my best research when I have been so curious about how some aspect of human learning/memory works that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I also find the collaborative aspect of research—with colleagues and students—to be totally rewarding and engaging. I feel applied research is important because my basic research has been motivated by applied issues and questions at least as often as my applied research has been motivated by my basic-research findings. That is, my basic research over the years has often been fueled by applied questions and real-world observations. We often talk about generalizing from laboratory tasks to real-world tasks and situations, but I have often gone the other direction—that is, trying to create a laboratory analogue of some real-world learning and memory situation or task. Another motivation for my pursuing applied research is that I have felt repeatedly that applying what we know from basic research had the potential to have a huge positive impact—on upgrading instruction, on enhancing performance, on improving witness-interrogation procedures, and on and on. If I were to offer any advice I’d say be curious and be tenacious.
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