Laurence Steinberg

Age of Opportunity: Lessons from the New Science of Adolescence, was published by Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in September 2014. While introducing Steinberg, prior to interviewing him about this book, for National Public Radio, Anya Kamenetz described how "his testimony has contributed to Supreme Court decisions abolishing the death penalty for juveniles and life without parole for juvenile offenders." Using Age of Opportunity as a starting point Wendy Leung, in The Globe and Mail credits Steinberg as "redefining" how we think about adolescence. Leung notes how Steinberg's study of “neuroplasticity” justifies considering adolescence continuing up until 25 years old, because individuals' brains were not fully formed at that age. This claim is dubious, however, as development of the prefrontal cortex region has been recorded to continue on even past the mid-30s, making 25 a possibly arbitrary cut-off point.'

Steinberg is frequently called upon to serve as an expert witness in cases involving juvenile offenders. The Boston Globe called upon Steinberg to address, for its readers, the question as to whether 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, convicted of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, should be given a reduced sentence because he had always looked up to his older brother.

Steinberg has been the recipient of numerous honors, including the National Academy of Sciences Henry and Bryna David Lectureship; the John P. Hill Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Study of Adolescence, given by the Society for Research on Adolescence; the Society for Adolescent Medicine’s Gallagher Lectureship; the James McKeen Fellow Award, given by the Association for Psychological Science; and several lifetime achievement awards given by the American Psychological Association, including the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Developmental Psychology (formerly known as the G. Stanley Hall Award) and the Presidential Citation. In 2009, he was named the first recipient of the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for Productive Youth Development. In 2014, he received the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award, a national prize given to professors who have “inspired former students to make a contribution to society.”

From 1983 to 1988, he was professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison and from 1977 to 1983, he was assistant professor at University of California, Irvine. His PhD in developmental psychology is from Cornell University.

Laurence Steinberg (born 1952) is an American university professor of psychology, specializing in adolescent psychological development.