Psychologist wins prestigious science award for job burnout research
Christina Maslach is recognized for pioneering measures of wellbeing in the workplace
January 22, 2020
Christina Maslach, a UC Berkeley psychology professor emerita, has been honored with this year’s National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Reviewing for her pioneering research on job burnout and worker wellbeing. The prize comes with $25,000.
Maslach, who joined UC Berkeley’s faculty in 1971, is one of 15 recipients of NAS awards for extraordinary scientific achievements in the physical, biological and medical sciences.
Among numerous other achievements, Maslach is the creator of a workplace exhaustion measure, known as the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which continues to be cited as a standard evaluator of job-related mental stress.
During her long and distinguished career at UC Berkeley, Maslach has served as vice provost for undergraduate education and as chair of the Academic Senate. She is currently president of the Western Psychological Association, and a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces.
The 15 winners of the NAS awards will be honored at a ceremony on April 26 at the academy’s 157th annual meeting.
The National Academy of Sciences was established under a congressional charter signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. In addition to recognizing research accomplishments, it provides policy advice to the federal government and other organizations.