As an undergraduate at the University of Connecticut in the early 1990s, I was fortunate to work with and take classes from great psychologists of all varieties such as Reuben Baron, Benjamin Sachs, Herb Kaufman, and Amerigo Farina. A wonderful experience -- so wonderful that I decided to go all the way and get my own Ph.D. in Social Psychology.

"Fortunate" is not a strong enough word to describe my experience as a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire. I got to work closely with Becky Warner who, as far as I can tell, is one of the best there is. In addition to getting a very strong background in social psychological research methods, I was able to work on much interesting research regarding measuring emotional intelligence (with Jack Mayer who played a very pivotal role in launching my career) and on the phenomenology of romantic partner perception (with Becky). I ended my stint there by winning the Sigma Xi Outstanding Dissertation Award (which, if you knew me in high school, may be somewhat surprising ...). I also met and married my beautiful social-psychologist partner, Kathy (we now have a just-as-beautiful girl named Megan and an all-out beast of a boy: Andrew).

After a whirlwind including a stint at Western Oregon University (which I loved) and a year at Husson College in perfect Maine, I've landed on my feet here at SUNY New Paltz where I serve as chair of the psychology department and teach several classes related to social psychology, evolutionary psychology, statistics, and research methods. My students and I are conducting all kinds of research -- most recently on the measurement of mating intelligence, a construct rooted in evolutionary psychology. We like to say that we're the best lab on campus!

The basic idea behind Mating Intelligence (described in detail in my 2013 book, Mating Intelligence Unleashed (http://www.amazon.com/Mating-Intelligence-Unleashed-Dating-ebook/dp/B00BK396CY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361758164&sr=1-2&keywords=mating+intelligence; co-authored with Scott Barry Kaufman)), pertains to the fact that evolutionary psychologists have recently demonstrated (strongly) that issues regarding mating have played a major role in determining the nature of the human mind -- however, in spite of this fact, research and theory on the topic of intelligence has pretty much ignored mating as a relevant topic fully. My research is designed to address this problem!

Much of my work here at SUNY New Paltz these days focuses on our interdiscplinary program in Evolutionary Studies (see: http://www.newpaltz.edu/evos/; www.evostudies.org). The point of this program, modeled after a successful similar program at Binghamton (directed by D.S. Wilson), and funded strongly by the National Science Foundation, is to provide all students (regardless of major) with the opportunity to actually understand evolutionary principles and be able to understand avenues of applying evolution to human affairs. For too long, college graduates have been, as a rule, fully (or nearly fully) ignorant of the intricacies of evolution -- we are working to change that.

I also spearheaded the creation of the NorthEastern Evolutionary Psychology Society (NEEPS) -- the first regional society dedicated to evolutionary psychology. Find out how to join or attend our meetings at: www.neepsociety.com

Check out my webpage at http://www.glenngeher.com for more information on me than even my mom would want to have!