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LOCAL Jewish Arizonan named one of top female scientists in
nation, world
SHANNON LEVITT | STAFF WRITER
W hen Nancy Eisenberg began
her career in 1977, there were
relatively few women doing research in
developmental psychology. Throughout
her 44-year career, she’s watched women
increase in numbers until they reached
parity and even a majority of professionals
in the field.

In that time, she’s also racked up a
number of impressive achievements. The
latest is being named 133 on Research.

com’s list of top female scientists globally
— and the top Arizonan; nationally, she
ranked even higher at 86.

Research.com’s stated mission is to
help academics and students in various
scientific fields find publications and con-
ferences around the world to assist their
work. Every year the organization creates
a list of top scientists through metrics
such as the number of scientists’ citations,
publications, awards and achievements.

This is the first year Research.com
created a list of the top 1,000 female
scientists globally and nationally.

“Of course, it’s nice,” Eisenberg told
Jewish News after learning her ranking.

It wasn’t a complete surprise, however,
since she’s been ranked highly in other
groupings of scientists.

Eisenberg was born in Cincinnati,
attended the University of Michigan
and then the University of California,
Berkeley, for her doctorate, which she
received in 1976. The following year, at
26, she landed a tenure-track position at
Arizona State University, where she stayed
until her retirement in 2021.

Her research is ongoing and she is
still the associate editor of American
Psychologist, an academic journal.

“I just don’t have to go to meetings,”
she laughed.

This career wasn’t always a given.

“I was always expected to go to college,
being from a good Jewish family,” she
said. She was valedictorian and an out-
standing science student in high school,
but science didn’t excite her. But because
she thought being a good student meant
science, she started out in microbiology.

“My first course bored me to death.

But then I took a psychology course,
and it just interested me. From there, I
started taking more and more psychology
and something about it just clicked with
me,” she said.

Eisenberg’s work focuses on develop-
mental psychology, including the topics of
prosocial behavior, empathy, emotional-
ity, self-regulation and adjustment. Her
research is multidisciplinary and looks
at various factors, including personal-
ity development, cognition and moral
reasoning. “When I started, no one was looking at
the role of self-regulation in sympathy and
prosocial behavior and few people were
SEE FEMALE SCIENTIST, PAGE 12
JEWISHAZ.COM JEWISH NEWS
Nancy Eisenberg
COURTESY OF NANCY EISENBERG
JANUARY 6, 2023
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