Julianne Holt-Lunstad Ph.D.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, where she is also the director of the social neuroscience lab. She also has an adjunct professorship at Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute Swinburne University of Technology; Melbourne, Australia; and the founding Scientific Chair for the US Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness and the Foundation for Social Connection.

Dr. Holt-Lunstad’s research is focused on the long-term health effects of social connection. Her work has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. Dr. Holt-Lunstad has worked with government organizations aimed at addressing this issue. She has provided expert testimony in a U.S. Congressional Hearing, expert recommendations for the U.S. Surgeon General Emotional Well-Being in America Initiative, served as a member of the scientific advisory committee for the U.K. Cross-Departmental Loneliness Team, and a member of a National Academy of Sciences consensus committee, and the U.S. Administration for Community Living. She also serves as a scientific advisor for several organizations across sectors. She has been awarded the George A. Miller Award from the American Psychological Association, Karl G. Maeser Distinguished Faculty Research Award, Mary Lou Fulton Young Scholar Award, Marjorie Pay Hinkley Endowed Chair Research Award from BYU, and is a Fellow for the Association of Psychological Science and American Psychological Association. Her work has been highlighted in the BBC 100 Breakthrough Health Discoveries in 2015, and has been covered in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time Magazine, Scientific American, "This American Life," "The Today Show," The Atlantic, and other major media outlets. She discusses her work in a recent TEDx talk.