Laura Marciano
Research associate in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Full biography
- Laura Marciano is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Media School, Indiana University Bloomington, USA, and an associate of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. She still collaborates at the Harvard Chan T.H. School of Public Health (Boston, MA, USA), Department of Social and Behavioral Science.
- Dr. Marciano spent almost four years as a Postdoc and Research Associate at the Harvard Chan T.H. School of Public Health (Boston, MA, USA), Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness.
- She is the Principal Investigator of research projects on digital media and well-being. In particular, the HappyB project has been funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF, Switzerland) and HappyB2.0 by the National Institute of Health (NIH, USA). The projects aim to study the longitudinal link between smartphone use, social media, and teen well-being, using cutting-edge research methods like trace data, Ecological Momentary Assessments (EMAs), screenshot donation, and a digital biomarker. Also, she is co-PI on the multi—sites Health&Happiness project involving smartphones and wearables (Garmin data) to study well-being.
- She obtained her PhD in Health Communication (Summa cum Laude) at USI Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano (Switzerland), with a dissertation focused on digital media (problematic or addictive) use and personality. Her doctoral work received the Award for best doctoral thesis in Social sciences from the Italian Embassy in Bern. Previously, she studied Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience at Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan (Italy), where she graduated with Laude and Menzione ad Honorem.
- Dr Marciano also promotes science as a member of the Board of Directors of IBSA Foundation for scientific research, based in Lugano, Switzerland. She authored the book “Smartphone: Alleato o nemico?” (“Smartphone: Ally or enemy?”) as part of the Let's Science! collection.
- Other science communication activities include the SNSF-funded Happiness2.0 project, which aims to translate the results of the HappyB study into practical activities and events combining arts and science.