William Gerin

William Gerin received his BA in Psychology from Stanislaus State College in Turlock, California in 1979, where he studied operant and classical conditioning avoidance models in animals.  He became interested in the role of human interactions in emotional regulation, and received his PhD in Social Psychology from Columbia University in 1984, under the mentorship of Stanley Schachter.  In 1985 Gerin undertook an NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in Cardiovascular Epidemiology at the Cornell University Medical Center.  He then went on to Mount Sinal Hospital and (back to) Columbia University, when he moved his laboratory to the Pennsylvania State University, in the Department of Biobehavioral Health, where he is a Professor, and the Director of the Experimental Cardiovascular Psychophysiology Laboratory.  His current research areas include the examination of acute biological responses, including blood pressure, heart rate variability, cortisol, endothelial function, and inflammatory markers, to stress and negative emotionality.  His other areas of study include the role of emotional regulation in the development of hypertension and coronary heart disease, non-pharmacological interventions to lower blood pressure and improve medication adherence in culturally diverse patient populations, health disparities in the treatment and outcomes of hypertension, and the role of psyochosocial factors in cardiovascular disease.