Dr Jay Belsky is an award-winning psychologist with an international reputation. A leading expert in the field of child development and family studies. He is the Robert M. and Natalie Reid Dorn Professor of Human Development at the University of California, Davis.

Dr Belsky has specialist knowledge of the effects of daycare, parent-child relations, and the effects of general early-life developmental experiences and environmental exposures on psychological and behavioral development.

In 2007, Dr Belsky was awarded the Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contribution to Developmental Psychology in the Service of Science and Society. In 2015 he was named among the Top 100 Greatest Living Behavioral and Brain Scientists based on citation analysis. In 2016 and 2017 he was named a Highly Cited Researcher by the Web of Science, as a result of being among the top one percent of scholars cited in the fields of psychiatry and psychology. A 2019 analysis of the impact of all scientists listed him in the top 0.01% worldwide.

Dr Belsky is the author or editor of several books, including the recently published The Origins of You: How Childhood Affects Later Life, written in partnership with fellow psychologist Drs Terrie Moffitt, Avshalom Caspi and Richie Poulton. Dr Belsky is frequently consulted by the media on issues relating to child development and parenting.