Richard C. Atkinson: President-Elect of AAAS.

W hen Washington veterans describe managerial effectiveness as practiced in their town, they use abstractions such as agencies, staffs, and access to the White House. They dwell on adversary contentions: turf fights, budget struggles, and legislative coups. What emerges is the style ofan experienced political operator overcoming opposition by any means necessary. The successful manager is usually far less combative. Anyone who has received a latenight urgent phone call from Dick Atkinson during his tenure as director ofthe National Science Foundation (NSF) or as chancellor of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), will attest to his powers ofpersuasion and his unremitting assaults against problems until they are resolved. But the essence of Atkinson's managerial style is a restless flood of energy. He simply does not rest until he has constructed paths to all of his goals. On 12 August 1976, about a year after arriving in Washington, D.C., on an 18month leave from Stanford University, Atkinson was named acting director of NSF after H. Guyford Stever's move to the White House as science advisor. At that time, the foundation's peer review system was under attack in Congress. Intense pressures were being generated on Capitol Hill to mount research efforts directed at national needs with prospects for short-term payoffs. The funding picture for NSF was bleak as the nation struggled with runaway inflation and with an oil embargo by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Single-minded and determined, Atkinson managed to turn the situation around. Peer review was successfully defended against congressional pressure to allocate science support on a geographic basis. Funding for