Edward Tronick, PhD
Ed Tronick is a developmental neuroscientist and clinical psychologist. He is University Distinguished Professor of Developmental Brain Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Research Associate in the Department of Newborn, Medicine Harvard Medical School. Dr, Tronick is internationally recognized for his research on infant neurobehavior and infant emotions and social interactions.
He formulated that Still-Face paradigm, and the Mutual Regulation Model. His research uncovered the significance of interactive discord and the positive effects of reparation of interactive mismatches for developing resilience, sense of self and hope. His research and writing is deeply informed by his studies of children and parents in communities in Kenya, Zambia, Peru, India, Congo, Grenada, Guatemala, and diverse communities in the Europe and the US.
His current research focuses on the behavior and physiology of infants’ and mothers’ coping with stress, infant memory for stress and its relation to trauma, epigenetic processes affecting infants’ and parents’ behavior, and the factors leading to relapse in new mothers with opioid use disorder. Dr. Tronick is founder and chief faculty of the Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship Certificate Program, a multidisciplinary international training program for providers working to enhance the development of children and their families.
His research is funded by National Institutes of Child Health and Development, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the National Science Foundation, the Bial and MacArthur Foundations. He has published more than 300 scientific articles and 5 books, several hundred photographs and has appeared on national and international radio and television programs.
Dr. Tronick is the recipient of many awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Zero to Three, and The Distinguished Scientific Contribution to Child Development from the Society for Research in Child Development. He is a fellow in both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Science Association and serves as a reviewer for Medical Research Councils, London, U.K., Canadian Maternal Science Foundation, International Conference on Infant Studies, Behavioral Sciences Program, National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Child Development and of Drug Abuse. He has lectured internationally, including talks in London, Rome, Bangkok, Melbourne, Lisbon, Pretoria, Buenos Aires and multiple cities the USA.
He is married to Marilyn Davillier, a clinical therapist and writer, has two adult children and four grandchildren.