Marion Perlmutter is a world-renowned researcher and teacher on issues of development throughout life. She was at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota from 1976 to 1984. There she advanced understanding of the memory capacities of toddlers and of the impact of social interaction on cognitive development in early childhood. Since 1985 Marion has been a professor in Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. There she has studied the previously unrecognized potentials of late life as well as the factors that lead to vitality throughout old age.
Marion has written or edited fifteen books and authored over 100 professional chapters and papers. She has served as leader and advisor of numerous professional organizations, academic units, and governmental agencies, and has directed large programs of research on child and adult development and aging. Marion has received major professional awards in both Child Development and Gerontology and started a graduate and postgraduate training program in aging. She has mentored numerous doctoral and postdoctoral students and taught undergraduate and graduate courses and seminars on topics relevant to child development, educational psychology, adult development, aging, cognitive development, late life potential, and twins. She is an engaging and informative speaker, well received in one on one interaction as well as with audiences ranging from small groups to over 500. Marion has strong analytic, organizational, and communication skills, exceptional creativity, a surprising sense of humor, and infectious enthusiasm.
Marion was born and raised with an identical twin in New York City. She was educated at the Bronx High School of Science, Syracuse University, the State University of New York at Albany, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 1976, held Professorships at the Universities of Minnesota and Michigan, been an Advanced Fellow at the Andrus Gerontology Center of the University of Southern California, and Visiting Scholar at the Max Planck Institutes for Human Development and Education in Munich and Berlin.
