Robert J. Waldinger, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Research Roles/Affiliations
Director, Harvard Study of Adult Development, Massachusetts General Hospital
Contact Information
Harvard Study of Adult Development, Massachusetts General Hospital
151 Merrimac Street – 2nd floor, Boston, MA 02114
E-mail: rwaldinger@mgh.harvard.edu
Relevant Links
Harvard School of Public Health profile
Research
Combinations of psychosocial and biological indices of mental and physical wellbeing have been central to my research over the past 20 years. I have a broad background in psychiatry with specific training and expertise in studying links between interpersonal relationships and aging. For the past 19 years as Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, I have led the lifespan development study of 724 individuals followed over 8 decades through two major waves of data collection to examine late life relationships and physical health (NIMH R01 MH042248, co-PI), and to study the social neuroscience of successful aging (NIA R01 AG 034554, PI). In 2014, I began studying the more than 1,300 baby-boomer children of the original participants. This R01 from NIA (AG 045230) focused on links between early life economic and familial adversity and midlife health and aging. My participation in several NIH-sponsored research networks, including the Research Network on Later Life Interventions to Reverse Effects of Early Life Adversity and Integrative Analysis of Longitudinal Studies on Aging (IALSA), has additionally allowed me to foster collaborations with leaders in research on psychosocial and biological components of aging. I have mentored numerous postdoctoral research fellows, medical students, residents, and junior faculty in my research lab. I served as a co-director of the NIH T32 Clinical Research Training Program, and received the Stuart T. Hauser Mentorship Award in Psychiatry from Harvard Medical School in 2012 for outstanding research mentorship. I am currently a co-PI for the Boston Early Adversity and Mortality Study (BEAMS) NIA RF1-064006, examining links between early life adversity (e.g., exposure to lead) and later life developmental outcomes.
Research Interests
Adult development
Childhood adversity
Attachment
Emotion regulation
Interpersonal functioning