Nationally recognized creativity researcher Mark A. Runco will be welcomed as the new E. Paul Torrance Professor of Creative Studies and Gifted Education at a reception hosted by the College of Education on March 16 at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. The reception, scheduled for 7 p.m., will follow the annual E. Paul Torrance Lecture from 5-6:30 p.m. in Masters Hall of the Georgia Center.
Runco will serve as senior scholar for UGA’s Gifted and Creative Education Program and executive director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, based in the education college’s department of educational psychology and instructional technology.
Runco had been a faculty member in the department of child and adolescent studies at California State University-Fullerton since 1987. He has been editor of the Creativity Research Journal since 1988. The National Association for Gifted Children honored him with the E. Paul Torrance Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and the Early Scholar Award in 1993.
In 1997, Runco served as president of the American Psychological Association’s Division 10 and was named a Fellow of the division in 1995. He received a Spencer Foundation research grant during 1988-89 and was awarded the Creative Education Foundation Research Award in 1988.
Runco earned his M.A. in 1981 and his Ph.D. in 1984 in psychology from the Claremont Graduate School.
The Torrance Center was established after Torrance’s retirement in 1984 to continue his scholarly inquiry into the study of gifted and creative abilities in diverse individuals.
