ROBERT BISWAS-DIENER

Session Title: Tall Poppies and Strong Students

Dr. Robert Biswas-­Diener is widely known as the “Indiana Jones of psychology” because his research on happiness and other positive topics has taken him to such far­flung places as Greenland, Kenya and India. He specializes in the topics of income and culture, respectively, as they relate to subjective well­being. He is also well known for collecting data with difficult to access groups such as Amish farmers, sex workers in Kolkata, Palestinian peace protesters, Inuit seal hunters and the Maasai. His research has resulted in 50 published academic journal articles and chapters as well as 8 books on topics ranging from happiness to courage to strengths to coaching. Dr. Biswas-­Diener serves on the editorial board of several journals including Journal of Happiness Studies and Journal of Positive Psychology. He has won a number of academic writing awards including the 2008 PROSE Award for best published book in psychology and the 2006 Social Indicators Research Best Paper Award.

Apart from his academic duties Robert is a world­-renowned coach. He is the world’s leading authority on positive psychology applications to coaching and runs an ICF recognized coach training program and is, himself, an ICF certified coach. In his role as coach and consultant Robert has worked with companies such as Deloitte, Standard Chartered Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Foster & Motley, Alaska Permanent Capital Management, Ruby Receptionists and many others. Each year Robert travels to a dozen countries and trains professionals from a wide range of industries. He is especially adept at tailoring his training to local cultural needs.

Robert lives in Portland, Oregon and rock climbs and skis whenever possible, which is quite a bit.

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