Avshalom Caspi

Avshalom Caspi, Ph.D., is the Edward M. Arnett Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, and Professor of Personality Development at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology, & Neuroscience, King’s College London. His expertise is in longitudinal methods, developmental psychology, personality assessment, life-course epidemiology, and genomics in behavioral science.

Dr. Caspi grew up in Israel. He attended the University of California, Santa Cruz for his undergraduate degree and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University. He worked in (West) Berlin, and served on the faculty at Harvard and the University of Wisconsin before moving to London and then Duke.

His research spans the fields of psychology, epidemiology, and genetics. His work is concerned with three broad questions: (1) How do childhood experiences shape aging and the course of health inequalities across the life span?  (2) How do genetic differences between people shape the way they respond to their environments? (3) What are the best ways to assess and measure personality differences between people?

For his research, Dr. Caspi has received both the American Psychological Association's Early Career Contribution Award and Distinguished Career Award. Dr. Caspi was also awarded a Royal Society-Wolfson Merit Award, and was a recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the International Society for the Study of Behavioural Development, the Mortimer D. Sackler MD Prize for Distinguished Achievement in Developmental Psychobiology, the NARSAD Ruane Prize for Outstanding Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Research, and the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for Productive Youth Development.

He holds an honorary doctorate from Tilburg University, The Netherlands. He is involved in international teaching and training initiatives in developmental psychopathology.