Laura L. Carstensen

Laura L. Carstensen is professor of psychology at Stanford University where she is the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy and founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity (SCL). Her research on the theoretical and empirical study of motivational, cognitive, and emotional aspects of aging has been funded continuously by the National Institute on Aging for more than 30 years. As a faculty fellow, Carstensen looks forward to her collaboration with Dr. Mitchell Stevens on SCL’s Futures Project on Education and Learning for Longer Lives.

Carstensen is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She served on the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society and was a commissioner on the Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity.  Carstensen’s awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Kleemeier Award, The Richard Kalish Award for Innovative Research and distinguished mentor awards from both the Gerontological Society of America and the American Psychological Association. She is the author of A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity (PublicAffairs, 2011).  Carstensen received her BS from the University of Rochester and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University. She holds honorary doctorates from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and the University of Rochester. Carstensen was a fellow at CASBS in 2009-10. For more information about her please visit: longevity.stanford.edu and lifespan.stanford.edu