Laura Carstensen is a professor of psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. professor in public policy at Stanford University, where she is the founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. In academia, Carstensen is known for socioemotional selectivity theory, a life-span theory of motivation. Her research has been backed by the National Institute on Aging for two decades. Carstensen is a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society and serves on the National Advisory Council on Aging to the NIA. She is the author of “A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity.” Her honors include the Kleemeier and Distinguished Mentorship awards from the Gerontological Society of America and a Guggenheim fellowship. She holds a B.S. from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from West Virginia University.