Before retiring he co-directed the Autonomous Learning Laboratory at UMass Amherst, which produced many notable machine learning researchers. He is currently an Associate Member of the Neuroscience and Behavior Program of the University of Massachusetts. He serves as an associate editor of Neural Computation, as a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Machine Learning Research, and as a member of the editorial board of Adaptive Behavior. Professor Barto is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow and Life Member of the IEEE. He received the 2004 IEEE Neural Network Society Pioneer Award for contributions to the field of reinforcement learning, the IJCAI-17 Award for Research Excellence for groundbreaking and impactful research in both the theory and application of reinforcement learning, and a University of Massachusetts Neurosciences Lifetime Achievement Award in 20019. He has published over one hundred papers or chapters in journals, books, and conference and workshop proceedings.