Scott Barry Kaufman

Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman is a psychologist, speaker, and best-selling author who is passionate about helping all kinds of minds live a creative, fulfilling, and self-actualized life. His early educational experiences made him realize the deep reservoir of untapped potential of students, including bright and creative children who have been diagnosed with a learning disability.

Dr. Kaufman is a professor of psychology at Columbia University and director of the Center for Human Potential. He is also founder of Self-Actualization Coaching. Dr. Kaufman is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for his research on intelligence and creativity. In 2015, he was named one of “50 groundbreaking scientists who are changing the way we see the world” by Business Insider. Dr. Kaufman received his Ph.D. from Yale University where he came up with a new theory of human intelligence.

Dr. Kaufman hosts The Psychology Podcast which has received over 30 million downloads and is widely considered among the top psychology podcasts in the world. He is also a regular keynote speaker. If you’d like him to speak at one of your events, you can make a request here.

Dr. Kaufman’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Psychology Today, and Harvard Business Review, and he is the author and editor of 10 books. In his book Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization, he presents a new hierarchy of human needs for the 21st century, one that allows for the fulfillment of individual potential as well as the actualization of transcendent purpose and peak experiences.

In addition to teaching at Columbia, Dr. Kaufman has also been a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and NYU. Dr. Kaufman received a B.S. in psychology and human computer interaction from Carnegie Mellon, an M. Phil in experimental psychology from the University of Cambridge under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Yale University. He received his coaching training from Positive Acorn. He is also an Honorary Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Wellbeing Science.