L. Rowell Huesmann, PhD

Dr. Huesmann’s research focuses on understanding the psychological foundations of aggressive behavior and in particular on understanding how the observations of others behaving violently influences the development of a youth’s aggressive and violent behavior and produces a contagion of violence. He specializes in conducting longitudinal studies of youth growing up over many years including the well-known Columbia County Longitudinal Study, the Oak Park Longitudinal Study, the Cross-National Television Study, the Metropolitan Area Child Study in Chicago, and his current Exposure to Violence Study for Palestinian and Israeli Youth. Over the past 55 years, Huesmann has authored over 100 widely cited scientific articles and books including Growing Up To Be Violent (1977), Television and the Aggressive Child (1986), and Aggressive Behavior (1994). He was Director of RCGD from 2006 to 2012 and was Editor of the international journal Aggressive Behavior from 2004 to 2012. He was the 2005 recipient of the American Psychological Association’s award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Media Psychology, the 2014 recipient of the International Society for Research on Aggression’s award for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Aggression Research. In 2010 he was elected a member of the USA National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention. He is a past President of the International Society for Research on Aggression and a life member of Clare Hall College, Cambridge University, UK. Dr. Huesmann recently completed a longitudinal study in Flint, Michigan aiming to inform the development of multi-layered community intervention efforts to reduce gun violence among inner-city youth.