In Memoriam: Allan Collins
Professor Emeritus Allan Collins was foundational for the learning sciences field and for SESP.
Northwestern University Professor Emeritus Allan Meakin Collins, a major force in the field of learning sciences and cognitive science, died April 20, 2026, after a short illness. He was 88 years old.
Collins, who was working in cognitive science before the field even had a name, was a foundational part of the Northwestern University's Institute for Learning Sciences, a pioneering research unit established in the late 1980s. The Institute anchored the development of the “learning sciences” field, which examines how technology, cognition, and social contexts shape education.
In 1991, SESP launched the nation’s first doctoral program in learning sciences, which grew out of research conducted at the institute.
“Few people have deeper or stronger roots in the learning sciences and cognitive science than Allan, from his pioneering Socratic tutor work in the 1970s to his book What’s Worth Teaching in 2017,” said Christopher Riesbeck, associate professor of computer science at the McCormick School of Engineering and co-director of the Center for Computer Science and Learning Sciences.
Collins’ work straddled at least three fields, but he would have loved to connect with countless more. In psychology he was best known for concepts like semantic memory—knowing facts—and plausible reasoning or educated guessing. In artificial intelligence, he researched reasoning and “intelligent” tutoring systems, which could adjust to students' learning needs. And in education, he studied how people learn through experience and practice.
“He was always curious, logical, incisive, and ready to lend a helping hand—particularly if it involved puzzling out a complex problem,” said his daughter, Elizabeth. “He was committed to science, research, and mentoring those interested in the same pursuits.”
Collins was born in Orange, New Jersey, and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. He earned three degrees from the University of Michigan, including a PhD in cognitive psychology in 1970.
Professor Emeritus Andrew Ortony, a longtime friend and colleague, was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign when he first met Collins in 1973 at a Psychonomic Society meeting. At the time (and for the next three decades) Collins was working on cognitive modeling and spearheading some of the earliest work on adaptive tutoring computer programs at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, a research and development company in Cambridge, Mass.
In 1969, Collins published a seminal paper titled “Retrieval Time from Semantic Memory,” which he co-authored with the late Ross Quillian, formerly associate professor emeritus at the University of California, Irvine.
“That paper very much resonated with me, so when we first met, I was delighted that we so quickly and easily clicked,” Ortony said. They began working with more administratively inclined colleagues and eventually secured a multimillion-dollar grant from the National Institute of Education to establish, in 1976, the Center for the Study of Reading as a joint venture between the University of Illinois and Bolt, Beranek and Newman.
“Allan’s quiet but essential role in establishing the Center for the Study of Reading was consistent with his general view and spelled out in his editorial of the first issue of the journal Cognitive Science, of which he was a founding editor,” Ortony said.
In that January 1977 editorial, “Collins argued that the way to study what the mind does and how it does it is to enable interactions among different disciplines,” Ortony said. “He was particularly interested in leveraging emerging ideas about cognition and learning to improve education, in part by exploiting what we then all thought of as AI.”
When Northwestern established the Institute for the Learning Sciences in 1989 with many new faculty positions in education, psychology, and computer science, both Ortony and Collins came aboard.
Collins’ 1987 paper, "Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching the Craft of Reading, Writing, and Mathematics”, with John Seely Brown and Susan Newman, is a foundational resource and one of the reasons he was an obvious hire for the fledgling learning sciences program,” Riesbeck said.
“With Roger Schank and Diana Michele Joseph (PhD00), he developed the passion curricula concept, which became one of the cornerstones in his 2017 book-length vision of the future of education, “What’s Worth Teaching.”
A co-founder of the Cognitive Science Society, Collins continued his research into the use of technology in education throughout the rest of his working life.
"A Humble and Gentle Soul"
When Professor Emerita Penelope Peterson became SESP dean in 1997, she met with Collins, whom she called “one of the school's most renowned faculty members.”
“However, unlike many famous scholars, Allan was a humble and gentle soul,” she said. “As time went by, I found Allan to be level-headed and thoughtful when I asked him for advice. With Allan's passing, our field has lost not only a ground-breaking scholar and mentor of junior faculty, but also a wonderful human being.”
In 2005, he retired from his position as a professor of learning sciences; three years later, he was inducted as an inaugural fellow of the American Educational Research Association.
“Whereas our specific research interests often diverged, our scientific world views were very much aligned,” Ortony said. “Indeed, even after our retirements, we continued to interact professionally, with the second edition of our book, The Cognitive Structure of Emotions, appearing as recently as 2022. He was a kind, patient, and sweet man, with a brilliant intellect.”
Greg Shrader earned his doctorate in learning sciences in 2000 and served as a research scientist at Northwestern until 2004.
“What I remember as a student was his generosity of time,” said Shrader, now CEO at Wellspring International Education. “As busy as he was, when he spoke with you, you had his full attention. He thrived on engaging students on topics he felt were important."
Collins was a member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the Cognitive Science Society, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He served as a founding editor of the journal Cognitive Science and as the first chair of the Cognitive Science Society. He was also chosen by French psychologists as one of 37 living scholars who have had the most impact on the field of psychology.
From 1991 to 1994, he and Jan Hawkins co-directed the U.S. Department of Education’s Center for Technology in Education. His book with alumnus Richard Halverson (PhD02) Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and the Schools was published in September 2009.
In his “retirement,” he continued mentoring and authoring articles and books well into the 2010s, his family said. He and his wife, Anne, whom he married in 1963, loved to travel, and they were both avid readers and theatergoers.
Collins loved music, from opera to the Beatles and the Go-Go’s. “He sang in choirs and operettas when he was young and around the house later in life,” Elizabeth wrote in his obituary. He was also an avid tennis player but had trouble finding partners in later years. “They kept getting injured, while he stayed healthy and able to put the ball where he wanted on the court,” she wrote.
“We will miss his impish grin, helpful nature, clear logic, and mean backhand slice.”
A memorial service will be held at the Lexington Depot Museum, 13 Depot Square, Lexington, Mass., on Sunday, June 7, at 5 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes memorial donations to the Huntington Theater in honor of Allan Meakin Collins.