DAVID C. GEARY, PH.D.

Curators’ Professor
Department of Psychological Sciences
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211-2500
Phone: 573-882-6268
Fax: 573-882-7710
E-mail: GearyD@Missouri.edu

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David C. Geary is a cognitive developmental psychologist with interests in mathematical learning and in evolution. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of California at Riverside, he held faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Missouri, first at the Rolla campus and then in Columbia. Dr. Geary is currently a Curators’ Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, and severed as department chair from 2002-2005, and from 2000 to 2003 he was the University of Missouri’s Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences. He has published more than 150 articles and chapters across a wide range of topics, including cognitive and developmental psychology, education, evolutionary biology, and medicine, including three books, Children's mathematical development (1994), Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (1998), and The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence (2005). He has given invited addresses in a variety of departments (anthropology, biology, behavior genetics, computer science, education, government, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and psychology) and Universities throughout the United States, as well as in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Italy.

Dr. Geary is the lead investigator on a longitudinal study of children’s mathematical development and learning disabilities, which is described with the MU Math Study

In addition to these academic activities, he was a key contributor to the 1999 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten through grade twelve. Dr. Geary has also contributed to more applied issues, especially as related to mathematics education. He and Dr. Hamson developed a web-based document for the American Psychological Association, Improving Mathematics and Science Achievement of American Children. The goal was to outline research and educational issues in mathematics and science, as related to the goal of American children attaining international standards in these areas. Based on his studies of children’s mathematical learning and learning disabilities, he has written pieces for parents and teachers on the topic, including a recent article for the Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development. Finally, Dr. Geary is a member of the President’s National Mathematics Panel.

Among many distinctions is the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (1996), and a scientific MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Geary was appointed by President Bush to serve a three-year term on the National Board of Directors for the Institute for Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education).