Professor Sue Carter

Dr. Sue Carter is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and also a Distinguished University Scientist at Indiana University, Bloomington.  She is the former Executive Director of the Kinsey Institute and a Rudy Professor Emerita of Biology. She has held professorships at the University of Maryland (Distinguished University Professor) as well as at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.

She has authored more than 400 publications and edited 5 books including ‘Attachment and Bonding: A New Synthesis’ (MIT Press). Dr. Carter is the scientist who first discovered the relationship between oxytocin and social monogamy and the formation of adult social bonds. She has a longstanding interest in birth and lactation and the evolution of human sociality and love. She is currently examining the developmental effects of oxytocin pathways and their role promoting in the capacity for social bonding, parental behavior and healthy relationships across the lifecycle.