Sigmund Koch's

Professional Biography

After completing his PhD in Psychology at Duke University in 1942, Koch remained at the institution, initially as an assistant professor and later as a full professor until 1964. During his tenure at Duke, Koch began to develop his own critique of psychology, culminating in perhaps his best-known work, Psychology: A Study of a Science (1959-1963), a six-volume status report on the discipline. In 1964, Koch left the academy to work in New York City as director of the Ford Foundation's Program in the Humanities and the Arts. In this capacity, he directed funding to support orchestras, conventions, and public and private lectures generally directed at an interdisciplinary approach to the arts and sciences.

Koch returned to the university system in 1967 as a full professor at the University of Texas at Austin, moving to Boston University in 1971. He continued to hold his post at Boston until his death in 1996. Aside from giving many distinguished and invited lectures to the APA and other organizations, Koch was elected president of several APA divisions during his tenures at both Boston and Texas. He was also awarded fellowships from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Psychonomic Society.