The summary omits the fact that Estes was the first Psychology Commissioner
in the exchange program between the Soviet Academy of Sciences and the
American Council of Learned Societies. He subsequently worked on a joint
project in conflict control. He did this work as a means of putting his
work to the best uses for mankind.
mike cole
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William Estes Receives National Medal of Science
Former Federation Vice-President William K. Estes has been named the
1997 recipient of the National Medal of Science. The award, given by the
President, is the nation's highest scientific commendation that honors
exemplary work in the physical, biological, mathematical, engineering,
and behavioral and social sciences. The long process toward being
selected begins with nominations from scientists and scientific
organizations. Dr. Estes was the single nominee of the Federation, the
American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society,
the Psychonomic Society, and the Society for Mathematical Psychology.
Nominations undergo merit review at the National Science Foundation with
the President and the President's science advisor making the final
selections from among the names that emerge from the review process.
It was Bill Estes' work in the 1950s that began the transformation of
experimental psychology from a field dominated by theories stated either
as descriptions of data or as sets of general verbal hypotheses to one
characterized
by the quantitative fitting of data with formal mathematical and computer
simulation models. these changes formed the base for modern scientific
psychology. Through his contributions, Dr. Estes has profoundly
influenced the development of such fields as learning, memory,
motivation, human development, decision making, and visual perception and
attention.
Dr. Estes was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1963. He
has set the standard of uncompromising rigor in research for five
generations of psychological scientists. As testament, his students have
become the stellar figures of contemporary psychological science.
Our warmest congratulations to you Bill!
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