Ruth Feldman

Ruth Feldman, PhD is the Simms-Mann professor and director of the Center of Developmental, Social, and Relationship Neuroscience at Reichman University, Israel, directs the Irving B. Harris public clinic for young children and their families, and is an adjunct professor at Yale University Child Study Center.  Her empirical research and theoretical models focus on the neurobiology of human attachments, processes of biobehavioral synchrony, and the biology of resilience.  Her studies on the role of oxytocin, the parental brain, inter-brain synchrony, and the neuroscience of empathy have been instrumental in describing the biological basis of human social collaboration and widely published in the media.  In several birth-to-adulthood studies she mapped the long-term effects of premature birth, maternal depression, and chronic trauma on brain and behavior and described the long-term effects of touch-based interventions on the adult brain.  Her observational tools for analyzing social interactions are used in 33 countries and her dialogue-enhancing intervention for Israeli and Palestinian youth is the first to show long-term effects on brain and behavior in the context of intractable inter-group conflict. Dr. Feldman was named a highly-cited researcher (2018), World Expert in parenting research (2019), and Leader in Psychology (2024). She is the recipient of the 2018 Graven's Award for research on high-risk infants, the 2022 award of the Society of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, and the 2020 EMET prize, Israel's highest prize in the arts and sciences.