Sonja Lyubomirsky

Sonja Lyubomirsky, Ph.D., is one of the leading happiness researchers in the world and the author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want. Lyubomirsky is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside where she currently teaches courses in social psychology and positive psychology. In 2002, she received a Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, and in 2003, she was awarded a million-dollar grant (with Ken Sheldon) from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on the possibility of permanently increasing happiness. Her research has been written up in hundreds of magazines and newspapers and she has appeared in multiple TV shows, radio shows, and feature documentaries in North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.

In her work, Lyubomirsky has focused on developing a science of human happiness. To this end, her research addresses three critical questions:

1. What makes people happy?
2. Is happiness a good thing?
3. How can we make people happier still?

She is currently exploring the potential of happiness-sustaining activities — for example, expressing gratitude, doing acts of kindness, reflecting on happy moments, and avoiding obsessively dwelling about oneself — to durably increase a person's happiness level beyond his or her "set point." She has been conducting research on happiness since 1989 and has published widely in the area.

An iPhone app has been developed, based on Lyubomirsky's work. Live Happy is a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind mobile happiness-boosting program that allows users to practice happiness strategies using their phones.

Originally from Russia, Lyubomirsky received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from Stanford University. She has lectured widely to a variety of audiences throughout the world, including business executives, educators, physicians, mental health professionals, life coaches, entrepreneurs, military officers, retirees, students, and scholars. Her teaching and mentoring of students have been recognized with the Faculty of the Year and Faculty Mentor of the Year Awards.

Lyubomirsky lives happily in beautiful Santa Monica, California with her husband, Peter Del Greco, and their three children, Gabriella, Alexander, and Isabella.