Robert W. Levenson

Robert W. Levenson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and Professor of the Graduate School. He directs the Berkeley Psychophysiology Laboratory and the Institute of Personality and Social Research. His work focuses on emotion, psychophysiology, and affective neuroscience, particularly in aging and neurodegenerative disorders. He has held roles such as Director of the Clinical Training Program and the Bay Area Predoctoral Training Consortium in Affective Science.

Levenson earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Vanderbilt University. His research examines emotional processes in marital interaction, cultural influences on emotion, and neural correlates of emotion in disorders like Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia. Key projects include longitudinal studies on marital dynamics and age-related emotional changes, supported by NIH grants.

His research interests span psychophysiological measures of emotion, empathy, and emotional control, with notable contributions to understanding autonomic specificity in emotions. He trains students in psychophysiological methods, neuroanatomy, and emotion assessment.