Michael Smyer

Senior Staff

Michael Smyer
Provost
217 Marts Hall
570-577-1561
smyer@bucknell.edu

Michael Smyer is the provost and a professor of psychology at Bucknell University. As provost, he works with faculty, staff and administrators to provide the most effective learning and living environment for our students.

Prior to joining Bucknell, Smyer was a professor of psychology and co-director of the Sloan Center on Aging and Work/Workplace Flexibility at Boston College. At the center, he focused on developing evidence-based practices to enhance the individual and organizational effectiveness of 21st-century workplaces. 

He received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Yale University and his doctorate in psychology from Duke University. Smyer served Boston College as dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and associate vice president for research for 13 years.  Prior to that, he was a faculty member and administrator for 17 years at Pennsylvania State University.

Smyer's research and teaching focus on adult development and aging, with special attention to the impact of the contexts of aging.  In addition, he has written extensively on aging and mental health, particularly the policy aspects of this area. He is a past president of the American Psychological Association's Division on Adult Development and Aging, and APA's Section on Clinical Gerontology, as well as a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, and the Gerontological Society of America. He is currently on the editorial board of Generations and The Annual Review of Gerontology & Geriatrics.

Dr. Smyer is the author or co-author of more than 100 articles and chapters. In addition, he has co-authored or edited nine books, including Challenges of an Aging Society (with Rachel Pruchno) (2007, Johns Hopkins University Press) and, most recently, an edited volume, Aging, Genetic Technology, and the Future (with Cathy Read and Robert Green) (2008, Johns Hopkins University Press).