In 2014, Atkinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for being an "international leader in the development of models to predict earthquake ground motions as a function of magnitude and distance."
Following her graduate degree, Atkinson worked with Klohn Leonoff Consulting Engineers and Acres International Ltd and held research fellowships with the University of British Columbia and the Geological Survey of Canada.
In order to establish this system, she oversaw the implementation of a series of 90 seismic probes buried in strategic locations across Canada, each connected by satellite to data centres.
[7] Atkinson remained at Carleton until 2007 when she accepted became the Canada Research Chair in Earthquake Hazards and Ground Motions at the University of Western Ontario.
[10] In 2014, Atkinson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada for being an "international leader in the development of models to predict earthquake ground motions as a function of magnitude and distance.