I-LABS: Andrew Meltzoff, Ph.D.

Andrew N. Meltzoff, Ph.D.

Co-Director, UW Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences
Professor, Department of Psychology
Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair

Andrew Meltzoff Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair and is the Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard University, with a PhD from Oxford University, he is an internationally recognized expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation have revolutionized our understanding of early cognition, personality, and brain development. His research on the effects of television viewing on infants has helped shape policy and practice.

Dr. Meltzoff's 20 years of research on young children has had far-reaching implications for cognitive science, especially for ideas about memory and its development; for brain science, especially for ideas about common coding of perception and action and "mirror neurons"; and for early education and parenting, particularly for ideas about the importance of role models, both adults and peers, in child development.

He is the co-author of two books about early learning and the brain: The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn (Morrow Press, 1999) and Words, Thoughts and Theories (MIT Press, 1997). He is also co-editor of The Imitative Mind: Development, Evolution and Brain Bases (Cambridge University Press, 2002), a unique, multidisciplinary volume combining brain science, evolutionary theory, and developmental psychology.

Dr. Meltzoff is the recipient of the Merit Award of the National Institutes of Health for outstanding research. He has been inducted into the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, is the recipient of the James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society.

He serves on the board of directors of the Washington Foundation for Early Learning (chaired by Washington State's First Lady Mona Locke), the European Research Foundation (EURESCO) board, and the national advisory board of Parents Magazine. He has served on the board of directors of the University Child Development School, and on the National Advisory Committee of the March of Dimes Foundation.

Dr. Meltzoff has appeared on the PBS programs Scientific American Frontiers and NOVA, on ABC's World News Now, NBC's Today Show, the CBC Discovery series, and on numerous national radio programs. His research has been featured in the Encyclopedia Britannica, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, National Geographic, and in science museums worldwide. He is married to Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, and they have one daughter.