Matthew Nock, PhD

Each year the Child Mind Institute’s Scientific Research Council selects an exceptional researcher for the Sarah Gund Prize, in recognition of an outstanding contribution to child and adolescent psychiatry, psychology or developmental neuroscience. The award honors contributions either to clinical science or basic science. The award carries a prize of $25,000 and is presented at the Child Mind Institute’s Annual Child Advocacy Award Dinner. The award recipient, along with several other scientists selected because they have been influenced by recipient’s work, are featured presenters at our next On the Shoulders of Giants scientific symposium.

Matthew Nock, PhD, is a professor of psychology and director of the Laboratory for Clinical and Developmental Research in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University.

Dr. Nock’s research focuses on understanding why people engage in behaviors that are harmful to themselves, with an emphasis on suicide and self-harm. His work uses a range of methods — including surveys, experiments, clinical studies, and real-time digital data — to explore how these behaviors develop, how to predict them, and how to prevent them. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and book chapters, and his work is funded by the National Institutes of Health and several private foundations.

Dr. Nock’s contributions have been recognized with multiple early career awards and a MacArthur Fellowship. He has served as a consultant and scientific advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Initiative, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Childhood and Adolescent Disorder Work Group.

At Harvard, Dr. Nock teaches courses on research methods, self-destructive behaviors, developmental psychopathology, and cultural diversity, and he has received several teaching awards, including the Roslyn Abramson Teaching Award and the Lawrence H. Cohen Outstanding Mentor Award.

He received his PhD in psychology from Yale University and completed his clinical internship at Bellevue Hospital and the NYU Child Study Center.