Matthew D. Sacchet, PhD

Dr. Matthew D. Sacchet, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Meditation Research Program at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Sacchet is an established expert in meditation and mental health research. His background includes proven success in leading teams to conduct innovative and complex studies, employing advanced research methods, studying meditation and mental health, and publishing in leading academic journals. Since 2012, he has authored over 90 publications, and his work has been presented over 125 times at international, national, regional, and local conferences and in speaker series, and cited over 5,000 times. He has received funding from primary federal funding bodies in the United States (including the National Science Foundation [NSF] and National Institutes of Health [NIH]), his work has been covered by major media (including CBS, NBC, NPR, Time, and The Wall Street Journal), and Forbes named him as one of its “30 Under 30.” Dr. Sacchet is an Associate Editor of the academic journal Mindfulness and a Research Fellow of the Mind & Life Institute. He completed a self-designed bachelor's degree in Contemplative Studies (uniting meditation and neuroscience) at Brown University and was then research staff at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Tübingen, before completing a Ph.D. and postdoctoral position at Stanford University. Prior to joining Mass General in May 2022, Dr. Sacchet was faculty and a director of research at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.