Dr. Elizabeth Phelps is a distinguished neuroscientist and the Pershing Square Professor of Human Neuroscience in Harvard University's Department of Psychology within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She earned her BA from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1984 and completed her PhD in Psychology from Princeton University in 1989 under the supervision of William Hirst and Marcia Johnson. Prior to joining Harvard in 2018, she held faculty positions at Yale University from 1992 to 1999 and New York University where she attained the rank of Full Professor in 2004. Her distinguished career trajectory reflects her significant contributions to bridging psychology and neuroscience, establishing her as a leading authority in the neural mechanisms of emotion.
Dr. Phelps pioneered research on the role of emotion in learning, memory and decision making at a time when emotional processes were rarely studied within cognitive sciences. Her groundbreaking work utilized diverse methodologies including functional magnetic resonance imaging, physiological measurements and brain lesion studies to demonstrate how the amygdala modulates emotional memory and influences perception and decision processes. She has made seminal contributions to understanding how emotional experiences alter memory consolidation and how fear learning can be updated in dynamic environments. Her research has provided crucial insights into the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety disorders and other psychological conditions where emotional processing is disrupted.
Beyond her research impact, Dr. Phelps has served as president of the Association for Psychological Science, the Social and Affective Neuroscience Society and the Society for NeuroEconomics, demonstrating exceptional leadership in shaping interdisciplinary scientific discourse. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous prestigious awards including the William James Award and the George Miller Award for her transformative contributions to the field. Recognized as a powerful mentor who champions women in science, she continues to advance her laboratory's work exploring how emotions color our cognitive processes and influence social behavior. Her ongoing research promises to further illuminate the complex interplay between affective states and cognitive functions with implications for both theoretical understanding and clinical applications.
