Robert A. Logan, Ph.D., retired from the Senior Staff of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) in 2020 and is a professor emeritus at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.

Logan was a professor, associate dean, and chair of the University Faculty Council at Missouri. He is the primary editor of: Betsy L. Humphreys, Robert A. Logan, Randolph A. Miller, Elliot R. Siegel. (Eds). Transforming Biomedical Information and Health Information Access: Don Lindberg and the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2022. 

Logan was the project officer for several NLM research contracts, directed the Association of Health Care Journalists-NLM Journalism Fellows program, and participated in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Health Literacy from 2015-19. He wrote, narrated, and produced ‘To Your Health,” NLM’s weekly podcast from 2006-2019. 

At NLM, Logan co-developed https://www.tuftsmedicine.org/research-clinical-trials/research-institutes-research-department/center-health-literacy-research-and-practice/health-literacy-tool-shed, a website to assist health literacy researchers, and chirr.nlm.nih.gov, a discontinued website that helped scholars understand significant constructs and theoretical frameworks in health communication. Earlier in his career, Logan was a science/medical newspaper reporter and editor.

Prior to joining NLM, Logan received more than $600,000 in grants and contracts as a principal investigator and more than $8 million as a co-investigator. 

Dr. Logan has published more than 70 articles in refereed journals and a similar number of book reviews, mostly in Choice. Currently, he serves on the editorial board of four internationally prominent refereed journals in science communication and mass communication. 

Logan is the first editor of two books about health literacy: Robert A. Logan, Elliot R Siegel. Health Literacy in Clinical Practice and Public Health: New Initiatives and Lessons Learned at the Intersection with Other Disciplines. Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2020; and Robert A. Logan. Elliot R. Siegel. Health Literacy: New Directions in Research, Theory, and Practice. Amsterdam: IOS Press; 2017.

Logan is the first author of four additional books: Social Responsibility in Science News: Four Case Studies (Washington: The Media Institute, 1997); and Environmental Issues for the 1990s: A Handbook for Journalists (Washington: The Media Institute, editions in 1993, 1994, 1995).

Logan twice served as President of the International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity (ISSSS) and twice as Head of the Council of Divisions and the Mass Communication and Society Division within the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He co-founded ISSSS and the International Health Literacy Association and currently serves on its Executive Board. 

Dr. Logan's research areas include: health literacy; public understanding of science and biomedicine; theory and applications of Q methodology; and mass communication ethics. Logan is a member of the Journalism Advisory Board at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo and the Dean’s Leadership Advisory Council @ the Missouri School of Journalism.

Logan is a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C. He grew up in Highland Park, IL, received a B.A. from Tulane University in 1969, an M.A. from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1973, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 1977.