Alexander Rothman received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University and is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Rothman’s primary program of research concerns the application of social psychological theory to illness prevention and health promotion, and is comprised of a synthesis of basic research on how people process and respond to health information with the development and evaluation of theory-based interventions to promote healthy behavior. He has published a series of articles that examine how people evaluate and process risk-relevant information, and has helped to identify the conditions under which people are receptive to information about personal vulnerability. He also has conducted and published several theory-based interventions that test the influence of different forms of persuasive health messages on the performance of a range of health behaviors such as screening mammography and sunscreen utilization. In his most recent work, Dr. Rothman has focused on how the relation between people’s health beliefs and health behavior unfolds over time. In particular, he has begun to delineate the different decision processes that guide the initiation and maintenance of long-term, self-regulatory behavior. In recognition of his work, Dr. Rothman received the 2002 Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology in the area of health psychology from the American Psychological Association.

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