For 32 years, Paul Ekman was a Professor of
Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California at San
Francisco. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and New
York University. He received his Ph.D. from Adelphi University in 1958 after spending a
year in clinical internship at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, part of the
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He served as chief psychologist in the
U.S. Army, Fort Dix New Jersey from 1958-1960. On discharge he returned to UCSF where he
held a three year postdoctoral research fellowship. He then initiated his research program
supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science
Foundation, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the DOD, loosely affiliated with
UCSF. In 1972 he was appointed Professor of Psychology at UCSF.
His interests have focused on two separate but related
topics. He originally focused on ‘nonverbal’ behavior, and by the mid-60’s concentrated on
the expression and physiology of emotion. His second interest is interpersonal deception.
