Biography

Stephen G. Post, Ph.D.

Stephen G. Post is Professor of Preventive Medicine, Head of the Division of Medicine in Society, and Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University (www.sunysb.edu/bioethics). He was previously (1988-2008) Professor of Bioethics, Religion and Philosophy, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, and Senior Research Scholar at the Becket Institute of St. Hugh's College, Oxford University. Post is currently a Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and an elected Hasting Center Fellow.

Post served as editor-in-chief of the definitive reference work in the field of bioethics, the third edition of the five-volume Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Macmillan Reference, 2004). Since the late 1980s he has focused on ethical and social issues surrounding persons with developmental cognitive disabilities and dementia. He is an elected member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer's Disease International, and was recognized for “distinguished service” by the Association’s National Board for educational efforts in bringing ethical issues to Association Chapters and families throughout the United States (1998). In 2003 Post was elected a Member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia for "distinguished contributions to medicine." His book entitled The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, 2nd edition) was widely influential.

He is equally recognized as a leader in the study of altruism, love, and compassion in the integrative context of scientific research, philosophy, and religious thought. He is President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (www.unlimitedloveinstitute.com), an Ohio-based 501 (c)(3) established in July 2001 with support from philanthropist John Templeton and the Templeton Foundation. The Institute has supported high level empirical research at more than fifty universities on topics related to unselfish love and its effects. Post became interested in these topics while a youth at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he studied with the distinguished African-American Rev. John T. Walker, who later became Dean of the National Cathedral. Post worked in biological research before completing his Ph.D. on the relationship between other-regarding love and happiness at the University of Chicago under James M. Gustafson, where he was an elected University Fellow, a preceptor in the Pritzker School of Medicine, and a Fellow in the Martin E. Marty Center for the Advanced Study of Religion. He received the Hope in Healthcare Award in 2008 for his "pioneering research and education in the field of unconditional love, altruism, compassion, and service." He was included in Best American Spiritual Writing (2005), and in 2008 he was also the recipient of the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada. Post is an elected member of the International Society for Science and Religion, and writes a blog for Psychology Today entitled “The Joy of Giving.”

Post has published over 150 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, The International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, The Journal of Religion, The American Journal of Psychiatry, The Journal of the American Medical Association, and The Lancet.  He has written seven scholarly books on altruism and love, and is also the editor of eight other books, most recently including Altruism & Health: Perspectives from Empirical Research, and Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy and Religion in Dialogue, both published by Oxford University Press. His most recent book, published with Broadway Books/Random House is Why Good Things Happen to Good People: The Exciting New Science That Proves the Link Between Doing Good and Living a Longer, Happier, Healthier Life co-authored with Jill Neimark. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

A public intellectual committed to conveying important ideas in the wider culture, Post has appeared on a diverse range of radio and television programs including Nightline, 20/20, and National Public Radio. Post is sought after as a public speaker by community and professional groups, and is the recipient of the "Top Notch Public Speaker Award" from the Ohio Endowment for the Humanities. He is a critic of "bioethics" as it has come to define itself in recent decades.

Post is a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church. His grandfather, Edwin Main Post, was the husband of Emily Post by his first marriage. He is currently a Trustee of the John Templeton Foundation (2008-2011).