John D. Bransford’s groundbreaking work emphasized the critical importance of background knowledge to understanding, a cornerstone of reading comprehension instruction. These studies also profoundly influenced the development of mental model theories, which guide teachers today in teaching children to construct meaning and images from text.  Under John’s leadership, the Learning Technology Center at Vanderbilt pioneered studies of technology’s potential as a catalyst to promote learning. By marrying video and software with literacy activities and anchoring instruction in the integration of literacy, mathematics and science, he and his colleagues showed how children could engage in complex problem-solving, building knowledge and engaging in “real reading and writing” at higher levels than teachers often thought possible. He and his colleagues developed the Little Planet Literacy Series as an outgrowth of this work, and the series won major awards including the 1996 Technology and Learning Award and the 1997 Cody award for Best Elementary Curriculum from the Software Publishers Association. His book, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, School (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1998) was a key driver of the emerging field known as “the learning sciences” and helped to unite teacher preparation with new discoveries in how people learn. At the University of Washington, Seattle, he and his colleagues received international recognition for its NSF Science of Learning Center that developed and tested principles about the social foundations of human learning across informal and formal learning environments.