Leah H. Somerville

Department Chair
Grafstein Family Professor of Psychology
Portrait of Leah Somerville
Northwest Laboratory 290.0352 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617 495 7513
somerville@fas.harvard.edu
Affective Neuroscience & Development Laboratory

Research in the Affective Neuroscience and Development Lab (PI: Leah Somerville) integrates psychological and neuroscientific approaches to inform how brain development through adolescence shapes psychological changes in cognitive, motivational, social, and emotional behavior. This work is aimed at informing mechanisms underlying the achievements as well as the health risks that emerge during adolescence. She has co-led national projects focused on brain development including as a co-principal investigator of the NIH-funded Human Connectome Project in Development. This research has been supported by major grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

Leah Somerville received a PhD in Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College and completed postdoctoral training at Weill Cornell Medicine before joining the department in 2012. Leah has been selected for awards including the the APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions,  the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award, a Harvard College Professorship (2021-2026), and the National Academy of Sciences Troland Award.