Robert Waldinger, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, will deliver “What Actually Makes a Good Life? Lessons from an 85-Year Study of Human Thriving”—the College of Arts and Science’s 2023 Irving R. Jurow Lecture—on Wed., April 26 at 5:30 p.m.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in Hemmerdinger Hall, Silver Center for Arts & Science, 31 Washington Place (at Washington Square East). An RSVP is required by visiting the event page.
What keeps people happy and healthy as they go through life? In an era when wealth, fame, and high achievement are often glorified as the keys to success, the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which began in 1938 and continues to this day, examines what actually helps people thrive by studying thousands of lives unfolding across nearly a century. This lecture will report on the longest study of adult life ever done and present scientific findings about human well-being throughout the lifespan.
Robert Waldinger, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and Zen priest. He is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he directs the Harvard Study of Adult Development. Waldinger is also the author of The Good Life (co-authored with Marc Schulz), which examines the central role of relationships in shaping our health and well-being. He teaches Zen meditation in New England and internationally.
For more information, email [email protected] or call 212.998.8100.
Endowed by the late Irving H. Jurow, NYU’s College of Arts and Science’s premier annual lecture is designed to bring leading public intellectuals and cultural figures to campus. The lecture demonstrates to its faculty, students, and alumni the centrality of liberal arts education to the university’s academic community. Recent past Jurow Lecturers include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett on “COVID-19: What Comes Next—And the Future of Global Health; James Esseks, director of the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and HIV Project; General John Allen; Professor Lani Guinier; Donald Marron, Jr.; Wanda M. Austin; Alfred Brendel; and Hélène Cixous—among other notable leaders in their respective fields.
