NIH 2016 New Innovator Award recipients

Alia Crum, Ph.D.

Stanford University

Project Title: Harnessing Mindset in 21st Century Healthcare
Grant ID: DP2-AT-009511

Dr. Alia Crum is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University.  She received her PhD in Psychology from Yale University where she worked with Dr. Peter Salovey and Dr. Kelly Brownell. Inspired by research on the placebo effect, Dr. Crum’s research was the first to reveal the physiological effects of mindset in core areas of behavioral health including the benefits of exercise, the metabolic processing of nutrients, and the effects of stress. Dr. Crum’s research helps move us beyond the limited notion of the placebo effect as a mysterious response to an inert substance toward the recognition that ultimately our beliefs and expectations are responsible for physiological responses. As the director of the Mind & Body Lab and the health director at Stanford SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-world Questions), Dr. Crum leads a team of researchers aiming to better define the role social and psychological forces play in overcoming chronic disease with the goal of empowering individuals and health-care practitioners to harness these forces in the prevention and treatment of our most difficult public health challenges.