In Memory Of… Ed Diener
Honoring scientists who have made important and lasting contributions to the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior.
Ed Diener, PhD (1946-2021)
Professor of Psychology
University of Virginia and University of Utah
Ed Diener, Ph.D., was Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology (Emeritus) at the University of Illinois, where he had been a faculty member since 1974. He was also a professor of psychology at the University of Utah and the University of Virginia.
Dr. Diener, who joined Gallup as a Senior Scientist in 1999, advised Gallup on research in psychological well-being. His research focused on the theories and measurement of well-being; temperament and personality influences on well-being; income and well-being; cultural influences on well-being; and how employee well-being enhances organizational performance.
Dr. Diener received several prestigious scholarly awards, including the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association and the William James Fellow Award for outstanding contributions to scientific psychology from the Association of Psychological Science. He was also awarded the Distinguished Quality-of-Life Researcher Award from the International Society of Quality of Life Studies.
Dr. Diener’s work appeared in more than 330 publications; about 250 of these focused on the psychology of well-being. His work appeared in journals such as Psychological Science, American Psychologist, and Psychological Inquiry, among many others. Dr. Diener was the editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology from 1998 to 2003 and was an editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies; he was also the founding editor of Perspectives on Psychological Science. Dr. Diener co-edited three books on subjective well-being: Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, Advances in Quality of Life Theory and Research, and Culture and Subjective Well-Being. He also co-edited the Handbook of Multimethod Measurement in Psychology. Dr. Diener wrote a popular book on Happiness with his son, Robert Biswas-Diener, and was the coauthor of Well-Being for Public Policy.
Dr. Diener was past president of three scientific societies: the International Society for Quality of Life Studies, the International Positive Psychology Association, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He was a fellow of five professional societies, including the Association for Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, and International Society for Quality of Life Studies, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and Experimental Psychology.
Dr. Diener earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from California State University, Fresno, and his doctorate in personality psychology from the University of Washington. He had more than 93,000 citations to his credit. Dr. Diener also received several teaching awards.
Individuals Honoring Ed Diener:
Anonymous (1)
Kent Berridge, University of Michigan
Dov Cohen
* Robert Feldman, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Susan Fiske, Princeton University
Susan Goldman, University of Illinois at Chicago
* Linda Isbell, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Laura King, University of Missouri
Sonja Lyubomirsky, The University of California, Riverside
Dave Myers, Hope College
Shigehiro Oishi, University of Virginia
Louis Tay, Purdue University
James Pellegrino, University of Illinois at Chicago
* The FABBS Foundation would like to thank Drs. Robert Feldman and Linda Isbell for nominating Dr. Diener for this honor and for leading the effort to spread the word about his nomination.
