Robert Waldinger, MD
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, and co-founder of the Lifespan Research Foundation
Robert Waldinger, MD (FAN ’23),
is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital, and cofounder of the Lifespan Research Foundation.
The Study has documented the lives of two groups of men for over 80 years. Waldinger is now beginning a study of the more than 2,000 Baby Boomer children of these men to examine how childhood experience affects midlife health and wellbeing.
Waldinger is the co-author, with Marc Schulz, Ph.D., of The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness. His new book, Nothing to Fix: The Life-Changing Science of Shifting Your Perspective, will be published in January 2027.
Waldinger is the founding director of the Lifespan Research Foundation, dedicated to bringing the insights of lifespan research to the general public. His 2016 TEDxBeaconStreet Talk, “What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness,” has over 53 million views, placing it in the top ten of all TED Talks.
Waldinger received his AB from Harvard College and his MD from Harvard Medical School. He is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and he directs a psychotherapy teaching program for Harvard psychiatry residents. He is also a Zen master (Roshi) and teaches meditation in New England and around the world.
