Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.

Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D. is the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, and founder and chair and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984. 

Davidson’s research broadly focuses on the neural bases of emotion and emotional style, and methods to promote human flourishing, including meditation and related contemplative practices. His studies have included persons of all ages, from birth though old age. They have also included individuals with disorders of emotion, such as mood and anxiety disorders and autism, as well as expert meditation practitioners with tens of thousands of hours of experience. Davidson’s research uses a wide range of methods including different varieties of MRI, positron emission tomography (PET) scan, electroencephalography (EEG), and modern genetic and epigenetic methods. He has published more than 290 articles, many chapters and reviews, and edited 14 books. Davidson has been a member of the Mind and Life Institute’s Board of Directors since 1991. He is the author (with Sharon Begley) of 2012’s The Emotional Life of Your Brain.

Davidson is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, including a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Research Scientist Award; a Method to Extend Research in Time Award from NIMH; an Established Investigator Award and a Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders; the William James Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society; and the Hilldale Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davidson was founding co-editor of the new American Psychological Association (APA) journal Emotion and served as president of the Society for Research in Psychopathology and of the Society for Psychophysiological Research. He was the year 2000 recipient of the most distinguished award for science given by the APA –the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. 

In 2003, Davidson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2004, he was elected to the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He was named in 2006 as one of TIME‘s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Also in 2006, Davidson was awarded the first Mani Bhaumik Award by the University of California-Los Angeles for advancing the understanding of the brain and conscious mind in healing. Madison Magazine named him Person of the Year in 2007. In 2008, Davidson founded the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds, a research center dedicated to the study of positive qualities, such as kindness and compassion. In 2011, he was given the Paul D. MacLean Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research in Psychosomatic Medicine. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig (2011-2017) and as chair of the psychology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011-2013).