Leo Joseph Postman (June 7, 1918 – April 22, 2004) was a
Russian-born American psychologist known for his research on
human memory.
Career
He taught at the
University of California, Berkeley from 1950 to his retirement in 1987. In 1961, he founded Berkeley's Institute of Human Learning, which later became the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. He was a member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
and the
American Psychological Association, as well as the president of the
Western Psychological Association in 1968.
In 1974, he was awarded the Warren Medal from the
Society of Experimental Psychologists.
Death and legacy
He died of
heart failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...
at his home in
Marblehead,
Massachusetts on April 22, 2004. His 2005 obituary in ''
American Psychologist'' described him as "one of the most prolific psychologists of the last century".
See also
*
Gordon Allport – Postman's teacher
References
Further reading
*
Soviet emigrants to the United States
1918 births
2004 deaths
City College of New York alumni
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Fellows of the American Psychological Association
20th-century American psychologists
Experimental psychologists
Memory researchers
University of California, Berkeley faculty
Harvard University alumni
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