Stanford’s Carol Dweck Is the Inaugural Winner of the $4 Million Yidan Prize

Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University in California, has been selected as the inaugural winner of the Yidan Prize for Education Research. The award was founded by Charles Chen Yidan, a Chinese high-tech entrepreneur and philanthropist. Yidan stated that the prize “was founded to shine a light on education that is transformative, sustainable, and addresses the world’s needs as we look to the future.

Professor Dweck will receive a gold medal at a ceremony in December in Hong Kong. She will receive a $1.9 cash prize as well as an additional $1.9 million for her research.

Dr. Dweck’s research intersects developmental, social, and personality psychology. It focuses on helping at-risk children realize academic success through effort and effective learning strategies.

Professor Dweck joined the faculty at Stanford University in 2004 after teaching at Columbia, Harvard and the University of Illinois. She is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City and holds a Ph.D. from Yale University. She is the author of several books including Mindset: The New Psychology of Success (Random House, 2006).