User:VsevolodKrolikov/Runco

Mark A. Runco is an American psychologist specializing in the fields of creativity and gifted children. He is currently the E. Paul Torrance Professor of Creative Studies and Gifted Education at the University of Georgia.

Background, education and academic career
Runco received a BA from Claremont Men's College in 1979, and an M.A. in 1981 and a Ph.D. in 1984 in psychology from Claremont Graduate University.

Runco worked in Chaffey College from 1981 to 1983. He then worked in the Department of Child and Adolescent Studies at California State University-Fullerton from 1987 until 2009, becoming a full professor in 1991. In 1992 he was a visiting scholar in the Cognitive Unit of the University of Bergen. In 2009 he was appointed E. Paul Torrance Professor of Creative Studies at the University of Georgia, working in the College of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology. He is also an adjunct professor at the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center in San Francisco and at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, both since 2003. In 1988 he founded and became editor of the Creativity Research Journal, a position he still holds. He is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Creative Behavior, Creativity and Innovation Management and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Research
Runco has studied how creativity develops. He explains that longitudinal research on trends in creativity suggests both continuities and discontinuities throughout an individual’s lifespan. In other words, a child identified as highly creative in early life may or may not consistently show creativity later on. He argues that this uneven development may result from the fact that certain traits and talents develop at different rates and are influenced by each individual’s environment and life chances.

Awards
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.