Dean Sternberg

Robert J. Sternberg is Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, Professor of Psychology, and Adjunct Professor of Education at Tufts University. He is also Honorary Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Prior to accepting his positions at Tufts, he was IBM Professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Psychology, Professor of Management in the School of Management, and Director of the Center for the Psychology of Abilities, Competencies, and Expertise at Yale. This Center, now relocated to Tufts, is dedicated to the advancement of theory, research, practice, and policy advancing the notion of intelligence as developing expertise--as a construct that is modifiable and capable, to some extent, of development throughout the life span. The Center seeks to have an impact on science, on education, and on society.

Sternberg was the 2003 President of the American Psychological Association and is the 2006-2007 President of the Eastern Psychological Association. He is President-Elect of the International Association for Cognitive Education and Psychology. He was on the Board of Directors of the American Psychological Association (2002-2004) and on the Board of Trustees of the APA Insurance Trust (2004) and of the American Psychological Foundation (2005-2007). He is on the Board of Directors of the Eastern Psychological Association (2005-2008) and of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (2007-2009). He is also Chair of the Publications Committee of the American Educational Research Association. Sternberg further has been president of the Divisions of General Psychology (1), Educational Psychology (15), Psychology and the Arts (20), and Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology (24) of the APA. Sternberg has been Acting Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology at Yale.

Sternberg received the Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1975 and the B.A. summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors with exceptional distinction in psychology, from Yale University in 1972. He also holds honorary doctorates from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain; the University of Leuven, Belgium; the University of Cyprus; the University of Paris V, France; and Constantine the Philosopher University, Slovakia; the University of Durham, England; St. Petersburg State University in Russia; and the University of Tilburg in Holland.

Sternberg is the author of about 1200 journal articles, book chapters, and books, and has received over $20 million in government and other grants and contracts for his research. The central focus of his research is on intelligence, creativity, and wisdom, and he also has studied love and close relationships as well as hate. This research has been conducted in five different continents.

Sternberg is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association (in 15 divisions), the American Psychological Society, the Connecticut Psychological Association, the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, the International Association for Empirical Aesthetics, the Laureate Chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, and the Society of Experimental Psychologists. He has won many awards from APA, AERA, APS, and other organizations. These awards include the Arthur W. Staats Award from the American Psychological Foundation and the Society for General Psychology; the E. L. Thorndike Award for Career Achievement in Educational Psychology Award from the Society for Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA); the Arnheim and Farnsworth Awards from the Society for the Psychology of Creativity, Aesthetics, and the Arts of the APA; the Boyd R. McCandless Award of the Society for Developmental Psychology of the APA; and the Distinguished Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology from APA; the Positive Psychology Network Distinguished Scientist and Scholar Award; the Palmer O. Johnson, Research Review, Outstanding Book, and Sylvia Scribner Awards from the American Educational Research Association (AERA); the James McKeen Cattell Award from the American Psychological Society (APS); the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Psychology Award from the Connecticut Psychological Association; the Anton Jurovsky Award of the Slovak Psychological Society; the International Award of the Association of Portuguese Psychologists; the Distinguished contribution Award and E. Paul Torrance Award of the National Association for Gifted Children; the Cattell Award of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology; the Award for Excellence of the Mensa Education and Research Foundation; the Distinction of Honor SEK, from the Institución SEK (Madrid); the Sidney Siegel Memorial Award of Stanford University; and the Wohlenberg Prize of Yale University. He has held a Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellowship to Slovakia, IREX Fellowship to Russia, Guggenheim Fellowship, and Yale University Senior and Junior Faculty Fellowships as well as an NSF Graduate Fellowship. He also has held the Honored Visitor Fellowship of the Taiwan National Science Council and the Sir Edward Youde Memorial Visiting Professorship of the City University of Hong Kong.

Sternberg has been listed in the APA Monitor on Psychology as one of the top 100 psychologists of the 20th century, and is listed by the ISI as one of its most highly cited authors (top ½%) in psychology and psychiatry. He also was listed by the Esquire Register of outstanding men and women under 40 and was listed as one of 100 top young scientists by Science Digest. He is currently listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who's Who in Science and Engineering. He has served as Editor of the Psychological Bulletin and of The APA Review of Books: Contemporary Psychology, and as Associate Editor of Child Development and Intelligence.

Sternberg is most well known for his theory of successful intelligence, investment theory of creativity (developed with Todd Lubart), theory of thinking styles as mental self-government, balance theory of wisdom, WICS theory of leadership, and for his duplex theories of love and hate.