After 16 years leading the Learning Research and Development Center, Charles Perfetti has decided to step down from his role as its director in August 2024.
Perfetti came to Pitt in 1967 as an assistant professor of psychology, and he was appointed that same year as a research scientist–senior scientist in the LRDC. He was recruited to the University by LRDC’s founding director, Robert Glaser, just four years after its launch.
Since then, Perfetti has been responsible for many of the projects, programs, and developments that have pointed the field of learning sciences in new research directions and made the LRDC a home for researchers studying the complex problems of learning and education. This includes growing neuroscience and child development research areas, while also increasing the LRDC’s research connections within the educational mission of the University.
“Chuck’s contributions to the science of learning — and to the University community — are far-reaching, and the LRDC and the next generations of learning and educational scientists will continue to benefit from the solid foundation he has built,” interim Provost Joe McCarthy said in announcing Perfetti’s decision to step down. “His efforts have been instrumental in making the LRDC one of the world's leading centers for research on learning and education.”
Named professor of psychology and professor of psychology and linguistics, Perfetti also served as chair for the Program in Learning, Development and Cognition; Graduate Program in Cognitive Psychology; and Department of Psychology, as well as interim chair for the Department of Linguistics. He became associate director of the LRDC in 2000 and took over as the third director of the center in 2008. In 2001, he was named a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology.
Perfetti’s own research explores the cognitive science of reading and language processes, the human ability to obtain meaning from language, and, through international collaborations, universal and language-specific aspects of reading. He has been affiliated with the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, for which he has been co-director, since 2008.
He has held active professional and research-related appointments with the Behavioral Science Institute, National Academy of Sciences, American Psychological Society, National Science Foundation, and Joint Laboratories for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience, among others.
During his career, Chuck’s outstanding work has also been recognized with the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from both the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading and the Society for Text and Discourse. He also received the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award and, most recently, the 2022 Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring for outstanding mentoring of graduate students seeking a research doctoral degree.
A search committee will be formed to identify his successor.