News Release

Acclaimed Carnegie Mellon psychologist honored for groundbreaking research

Grant and Award Announcement

Carnegie Mellon University

PITTSBURGH--Sheldon Cohen, the Robert E. Doherty Professor of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, has won the American Psychological Association's prestigious Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award for 2004.

The award honors psychologists who have made distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology. Cohen, who received the 2002-03 American Psychological Society's James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for outstanding lifetime contributions to applied psychological research, will be honored for his work on the roles of psychological and social factors in health and well-being. He will receive the award in a ceremony in July at the American Psychological Association's annual convention in Hawaii.

"It is a tremendous honor to receive this award. I have been fortunate in spending the last 30 years of my life doing work that I love and being paid for it. Being honored by my peers for having so much fun is more than anyone could expect," Cohen said.

Cohen is one of the architects of Carnegie Mellon's highly respected health psychology program, and has helped turn Pittsburgh into the world's leading center of health psychology research. He is internationally recognized for his trailblazing scientific contributions toward understanding the effects of social and environmental stress on human behavior and health. He has been at Carnegie Mellon since 1982.

"This award is given to people who have made a life-long contribution to psychological science and who have changed our knowledge of psychological processes in fundamental ways. Sheldon has certainly done this," said Michael Scheier, head of the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon.

"When people need to cite rigorous research demonstrating links between psychological factors and physical well-being, it is Sheldon's work that is more often than not mentioned," Scheier said.

The Department of Psychology is one of eight departments in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the second-largest academic unit at Carnegie Mellon. The college emphasizes interdisciplinary study in a technologically rich environment, with an open and forward-thinking stance toward the arts and sciences.

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