Paul Ekman Ph.D. Paul Ekman Ph.D. '58, a pioneering psychologist in the field of emotion and its physical expression, will receive an honorary doctor of science degree from Adelphi University at a ceremony on Wednesday, September 24, at 1:00 p.m. in the Ruth S. Harley University Center Ballroom, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY. Following the conferring of the degree, Dr. Ekman will deliver a short address, "Emotional Awareness: A Conversation Between the Dalai Lama and Paul Ekman." Later the same day, Dr. Ekman will present a public lecture, "Reading Faces: The Application to Psychodiagnosis and Psychotherapy" at 4:00 p.m. in the Ruth S. Harley University Center, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY.

In his short address, Dr. Ekman will talk about his recent meetings with the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, which inspired his forthcoming book Steps towards Emotional Balance: The Dalai Lama in Dialog with Paul Ekman. The Dalai Lama has sponsored Dr. Ekman to develop training tools and classes that teach individuals to recognize and regulate emotion. The anticipated title invites the reader into a conversation between the two scholars in which they discuss the process of achieving emotional balance as a step in promoting global compassion.

In his evening lecture, Dr. Ekman will discuss how to understand emotion through facial expression using his ground-breaking Facial Action Coding System (FACS), a method of detecting emotion by the observation of facial muscle movements. The system, which outlines the muscle movement combinations of nearly 3,000 meaningful facial expressions spanning the entire spectrum of human emotion, has been utilized by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and law enforcement officials worldwide. Animators at Pixar, DreamWorks, and Industrial Light & Magic have similarly enlisted Dr. Ekman's research to help them engineer more lifelike characters.

Named one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century by the American Psychological Association, Dr. Ekman has made a significant impact on the field of psychology. His early research, drawing from the evolutionary principles of Charles Darwin, redefined the culture-specific theory of prominent anthropologist Margaret Mead by demonstrating that emotional expression is universally represented. His work has been highlighted in various publications including TIME Magazine, Smithsonian, Psychology Today, the New Yorker, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Dr. Ekman was invited to be a guest on Larry King Live and Oprah, among others. He has appeared on 48 Hours, Dateline, Good Morning America, and 20/20. He was also featured on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and Bill Moyers' The Truth About Lying. Dr. Ekman has authored more than 100 articles and, in September, will publish his 15th book, Emotional Awareness: Overcoming Obstacles to Psychological Balance and Compassion.

Dr. Ekman entered the University of Chicago at the age of 15 and emerged an avid Freud scholar. With an aspiration to practice psychotherapy, he graduated from Adelphi University with a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1958. Drafted into the U.S. Army soon after, he served as chief psychologist at Fort Dixon, New Jersey for two years before resuming post-doctoral research at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute of the University of California, San Francisco, where he taught at the Department of Psychiatry until his retirement in 2004.

Reservations are required by September 17 for the degree ceremony and afternoon address. To RSVP, please contact Erin Gayron, at gayron@adelphi.edu or (516) 877-3475. The evening lecture is free and open to the public. For more information about this and other events, please visit www.adelphi.edu, or call the University's Cultural Events Hotline at (516) 877-4555.