2009 SPEAKERSMODERATORS

is a professor of psychology at Harvard University. His research on “affective forecasting” examines the mistakes people make when they attempt to predict their hedonic reactions to future events. Gilbert has won numerous awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology. In 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Gilbert’s book, Stumbling on Happiness (Knopf, 2006), spent 25 weeks on The New York Times’ best-seller list and was awarded the Royal Society’s General Prize for best science book. He has contributed to Time, The New York Times, and NPR's “All Things Considered”; his short stories have appeared in Amazing Stories and Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, among others. In 2010, Gilbert will host a six-hour “NOVA” series, “Human Nature,” on PBS.