Yale University President Richard C. Levin has named Psychology Professor Peter Salovey as the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, effective immediately.
Salovey, the Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology and chair of the Psychology Department for the past two and one-half years, joined the Yale faculty in 1986 and became a full professor in 1995. Before becoming chair of his department, he served as director of graduate studies in Psychology for six years. He holds secondary appointments in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health and the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. In addition, he is deputy director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS.
“Professor Salovey has been an outstanding scholar and teacher since joining the faculty in 1986 and an exceptionally effective chair of the Psychology Department,” said President Levin in announcing the appointment. “Those of us who have worked with Professor Salovey know that he has a special talent for bringing out the best in people and in fostering collaboration. He is an inspired teacher and a devoted mentor. I am confident that he will distinguish himself as Dean, just as he has in every assignment he has been given throughout his career at Yale.”
Salovey is President-elect of the Society for General Psychology. He has authored more than 200 publications and edited several psychology journals. His recent research has focused on the psychological consequences of the arousal of emotion, especially on the ways in which moods and emotions facilitate adaptive cognitive and behavioral functioning. With John D. Mayer, he has developed a broad framework called “Emotional Intelligence” that organizes this work. He also conducts research funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health on the framing and tailoring of health messages to motivate behaviors that can prevent cancer and HIV/AIDS. A recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award, he has served on the NSF Social Psychology Advisory Panel and the NIMH Behavioral Science Working Group on Translational Research in Mental Health.
Salovey received an A.B. in Psychology and a co-terminal M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University in 1980. He received his Ph.D. in Psychology from Yale in 1986. He is the first dean of the Graduate School to have been president of the Graduate Professional Student Senate.
He was awarded the William Clyde DeVane Medal for Distinguished Scholarship and Teaching at Yale in 2000 and the Lex Hixon Prize for Teaching in the Social Sciences in 2002.
He succeeds Susan Hockfield, the William Edward Gilbert Professor of Neurobiology, who was named Yale’s Provost last month. Marcia Johnson, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, will serve as the Acting Chair of Psychology for the spring semester.
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale prepares students for careers in research, scholarship and teaching through advanced study in 73 departments and programs. Approximately 2,300 students are enrolled in the Graduate School. Established in 1847, it is the nation’s oldest graduate school and the first in the United States to award the Ph.D. degree.