Kevin Carlsmith, a highly regarded associate professor of psychology at Colgate University, died of cancer Nov. 19, 2011. He was 44.
Carlsmith graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 1989, received a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1996, and earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton in 2001. In 2003, after a postdoctoral fellowship at Virginia, he became an assistant professor at Colgate and rose to associate professor in 2009. He taught a variety of psychology courses, including a freshman seminar of his own design.
Carlsmith’s research delved into morality and justice, especially punishment and revenge. His work was published in scholarly journals, and he received three National Science Foundation grants. For 2010-2011, he was a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, the university where both his parents had been faculty members.
At Stanford, he was able to collaborate with other social scientists, manage his health, introduce his wife and daughters to his native Bay Area, and care for his mother in her final months. Carlsmith is survived by his wife, Alison, whom he married in 2001; their two daughters; a brother; and a sister.
Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.