Mary K. Rothbart

Mary K. Rothbart, PhD, is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of Oregon. Her research has focused on temperament, attention, emotion, and social development, and she has developed several widely used measures of temperament, including parent and self-report questionnaires, home observations, and laboratory observations. Dr. Rothbart's work with Michael Posner has explored the cognitive skills, attention networks, and attention genes that support effortful control in children. She has coauthored or coedited numerous books and has received numerous awards. Most recently, she received the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award from Division 7 (Developmental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, for Becoming Who We Are. Dr. Rothbart has also received the Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology from the American Psychological Foundation, the G. Stanley Hall Award for Distinguished Contribution to Developmental Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and the Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Child Development from the Society for Research in Child Development. One of the offshoots of her early temperament research was the founding of Birth to Three, a parent support and education program that has reached thousands of families in the United States and abroad, and which recently celebrated its 30th birthday. Dr. Rothbart is most pleased to have received Birth to Three's Champion of Children award.