Phoebe C. Ellsworth, Frank Murphy Distinguished Professor of Law and Psychology, and Faculty Associate, ISR Research Center for Group Dynamics.

Former students, colleagues, and family gathered to celebrate Professor Ellsworth’s career on November 30th, 2018 at a Symposium entitled, “Emotion, Policy, and Social Life”.

Dr. Ellsworth joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1987 as full professor after teaching at Yale University and Stanford University.  Dr. Ellsworth is widely regarded as an excellent teacher and mentor, as well as a leader at the University of Michigan and within her field. Dr. Ellsworth’s ground-breaking scholarship has made central contributions in two distinct research areas within psychology: the theory of emotions and the field of psychology and law.  As a leading theorist in emotion, Dr. Ellsworth research focuses on how cognitive appraisals influence emotion. Dr. Ellsworth’s fundamental contributions to psychology and law include her landmark research tracing how death penalty attitudes influence the quality of jury deliberation and the jury’s verdict. She is the author of over 130 articles, books, and commentaries that have received over 25,000 citations.  Her book Emotion in the Human Face (with P. Ekman and W. V. Friesen), has been cited alone over 4500 times. Her awards include fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the James McKeen Cattell Fellowship for applied research from the Association for Psychological Science (2016), the Phi Beta Distinguished Lectureship (2002-2004), the Career Contribution Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2014), and the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society of Experimental Social Psychology (2017). Her mentoring has been honored by the Nalini Ambady Award for Mentoring Excellence from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (2014), the American Psychological Association Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students (2011), and the Association for Psychological Science Mentor Award (2017).  She is a graduate of both Harvard University and Stanford University.