Editing Richard C. Atkinson (section)

=== National Science Foundation ===
In 1975, Atkinson took a leave of absence from Stanford to begin a temporary appointment as deputy director of the [[National Science Foundation]] (NSF). His career took a different course when he agreed to remain at NSF, serving first as acting director (1976–77) and then as director (1977–80) appointed by [[Jimmy Carter|President Jimmy Carter]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Science Foundation, Biography of Richard Atkinson, 5th Director of National Science Foundation |url=https://new.nsf.gov/about/history#ratkinson |access-date= |website=NSF.gov |language=en}}</ref>

Atkinson's task was to lead the Foundation through what one commentator called “a rebuilding from the ravages of the Nixon anti-science era.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pelfrey |first=Patricia A. |date=2012 |title=Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h83s857 |journal=eScholarship |language=en |pages=28}}</ref> Skeptics in Congress and the media often attacked basic research, most of it conducted in universities, as a drain on public money that produced few practical results. Senator [[William Proxmire]]’s [[Golden Fleece Award|Golden Fleece Awards]] for waste and fraud in public programs were the best-known examples; NSF received several. In Congressional testimony and in the press, Atkinson defended the integrity of NSF's peer review process and the seminal role basic research plays in laying the groundwork for advances in science and technology.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pelfrey |first=Patricia A. |date=2012 |title=Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h83s857 |journal=eScholarship |language=en |pages=23-24}}</ref>

Atkinson established the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Program at a time when collaborative research between private companies and universities, now accepted, was rare. He initiated a special program at NSF to fund research on the relationship between investments in research and economic growth, an early contribution to the field of economics known as “new growth theory”. H elevated engineering to a full directorate at NSF to reflect its importance to science and the nation. He advocated with Congress for legislation giving companies a tax credit for investing in their own research and for supporting university research. He began a series of policy studies that led to the1980 [[Bayh–Dole Act|Bayh-Dole Act]], which transferred the intellectual property rights in federally sponsored research from the U.S. government to universities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pelfrey |first=Patricia A. |date=2012 |title=Entrepreneurial President: Richard Atkinson and the University of California, 1995-2003 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h83s857 |journal=eScholarship |language=en |pages=26-27}}</ref>

In his role as NSF director, Atkinson also negotiated the first memorandum of understanding between the [[People’s Republic of China]] and the [[United States]], an agreement for the exchange of scientists and scholars. It became part of a more comprehensive agreement on science and technology between China and the United States signed by [[Jimmy Carter|President Carter]] and Chairman [[Deng Xiaoping|Deng Xiao Ping]] during the Chairman's visit to the United States in January 1979.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Atkinson |first=Richard C. |date=2006 |title=Recollections of Events Leading to the First Exchange of Students, Scholars and Scientists Between the United States and the People’s Republic of China |url=http://rca.ucsd.edu/speeches/recollections_china_student_exchange.pdf}}</ref>