Rate My Professor Sian Beilock

Dr. Sian Leah Beilock is the 19th president in the Wheelock succession at Dartmouth College, having begun her tenure on June 12, 2023, as the first woman elected by the Board of Trustees. She also serves as Rowley Professor of Psychology and Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences. Beilock holds a Bachelor of Science in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego, and doctorate degrees in psychology and kinesiology from Michigan State University. Previously, she was the eighth president of Barnard College at Columbia University, responsible for all aspects including strategic vision, budget, fundraising, faculty, staff, and students. At the University of Chicago, she was Executive Vice Provost, the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology, and an Officer of the University, overseeing broad academic and administrative functions.

As a distinguished cognitive scientist, Beilock is recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on performance under pressure. Her work at the Human Performance Lab investigates the cognitive and neural substrates of learning and the mechanisms by which performance deteriorates under stress, employing methods like reaction time measures, salivary cortisol, and fMRI. This research informs educational practice and policy. She has published 120 peer-reviewed papers, key examples including "Reducing Socioeconomic Disparities in the STEM Pipeline Through Student Emotion Regulation" (2019, PNAS) and "The Math Anxiety-Performance Link: A Global Phenomenon" (2017). Her books Choke (2010) and How the Body Knows Its Mind (2015) have been published in more than a dozen languages, and her 2017 TED Talk on the topic has nearly 3 million views. Major honors include the 2017 Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, National Academy of Kinesiology, fellowships from the American Psychological Association (2014), Association for Psychological Science (2009), and early career awards such as the NSF CAREER Award (2008) and Janet Taylor Spence Early Career Award (2011). Beilock has collaborated with Fortune 500 companies, professional sports teams, and public sector leaders to build high-performing teams.