Robert J Waldinger

Robert J. Waldinger (born 1951) is an American psychiatrist and Professor at Harvard Medical School. He is known for a TED talk about his findings from the Grant Study, a 75-year-long Harvard study on adult happiness.

Waldinger is the current Director of the Laboratory of Adult Development at Massachusetts General Hospital, a longitudinal study that has tracked the health and mental well-being of a group of 724 American men for 76 years. Waldinger is also a faculty member in the adult training program at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. He is the Director of the Center for Psychodynamic Therapy and Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a Zen priest as well. After the viral success of his TED talk, he took a 3-week silent retreat; Waldinger explains "the Zen tradition holds that contemplation helps us stay grounded in what’s most important in life."

Waldinger graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1973. He completed his M.D. at Harvard Medical School in 1978.