Jean-Philippe Laurenceau has been appointed Blue and Gold Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences.

Blue and Gold Professor

Laurenceau appointed to new named faculty position

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2:19 p.m., May 28, 2015--Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, who conducts research on intimacy in relationships and whose teaching focuses on helping students understand the applications of classroom learning to real-life situations, has been named the Blue and Gold Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware.

Laurenceau was appointed to the newly created, renewable, five-year named professorship effective April 1, 2015.

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“Your appointment to this professorship is in recognition of your achievements as a scholar and educator,” UD President Patrick Harker and Provost Domenico Grasso said in a letter to Laurenceau. “We greatly appreciate your outstanding contributions and service to the University of Delaware.”

Laurenceau, who earned his bachelor’s degree cum laude at Cornell University and his doctoral degree at Pennsylvania State University, joined the UD faculty as associate professor in 2005 and is also senior research scientist at Christiana Care Health System’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. In addition, he is chair of UD’s Institutional Review Board, a committee formally designated to promote human subjects research and ensure that the rights and welfare of human subjects are protected during their participation.

His research interests focus on understanding the processes by which partners in marital and romantic relationships develop and maintain intimacy within the context of everyday life. His methodological interests include intensive longitudinal methods and applications of modern methods for the analysis of change in individuals and dyads. 

More recently, he has been studying how couples cope with and maintain connection amid health-related adversity, including breast cancer and diabetes.

Laurenceau was an appointed member of the Social, Personality, and Interpersonal Processes grant review panel of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Journal of Family Psychology and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In addition to being the recipient of an NIH K01 Research Scientist Development Award, he has been principal investigator or co-investigator on several NIH-funded research projects granted by the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Cancer Institute.

He is the co-author of the 2013 book Intensive Longitudinal Methods: An Introduction to Diary and Experience Sampling Research and has authored or co-authored over 70 journal articles and book chapters.

At UD, Laurenceau teaches graduate courses in applied statistical methods. He currently mentors five doctoral students; three have published in top journals in the field and one has received an NIH National Research Service Award predoctoral fellowship.

He also teaches an undergraduate course on the theory, science and practice of intimate relationships and involves undergraduate research assistants in his research. 

Laurenceau regularly consults with undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty, both at UD and other institutions, on applied methodology and statistics. He is frequently invited to conduct workshops on applied longitudinal methods and data analysis both nationally and internationally.

“My teaching philosophy is guided by a few simple principles,” he said, explaining that he seeks to “make the material interesting, establish the link between psychology and ‘real life’ and encourage the application of acquired knowledge to a novel situation.”

In addition to his scholarship and teaching, Laurenceau said he “makes it a point to support various diversity initiatives as well as undergraduates, graduate students and faculty who are underrepresented in academia.”

In doing so, he said, he uses his own story as a message to students and faculty of color and those who are from a first-generation background. Born in New York City to immigrant parents — his mother came to the United States from Ecuador and his father from Haiti — he said he reaches out to encourage others in their academic pursuits.

Laurenceau’s work to strengthen and enhance diversity at UD has included membership on the University’s Diversity Task Force, Diversity Action Council, Diversity and Equity Commission and the Latino/Hispanic Heritage Caucus, which he served as chair. He is a faculty scholar for the College of Arts and Sciences’ Center for the Study of Diversity, a member of the executive council of the University Diversity Initiative and an advisory board member of UD’s Black Graduate Student Association.

He also has participated actively in the University’s McNair Scholars program and has given guest lectures at community colleges as a way to expose students from diverse backgrounds to academic opportunities they might want to pursue at UD.

“I am sincerely grateful to the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, the College of Arts and Sciences, Provost Grasso and my colleagues and students for their support over the 10 years I’ve been at UD,” Laurenceau said.

Article by Ann Manser

Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson

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