Sharda Umanath is an associate professor of Psychological Science and the principal investigator of the Umanath Memory and Aging Laboratory at Claremont McKenna College. She received an AB in Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology and Ancient Studies from Washington University in St. Louis in 2009 and her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from Duke University in 2014. After an NIH-funded post-doctoral research fellowship in aging and development at Washington University in St. Louis, she started her position at Claremont McKenna and earned promotion with tenure in 2021. Umanath’s research focuses on how knowledge works in memory and explores related issues involving cognitive aging, autobiographical memory, collective memory, false memories, and education. She has about 40 publications to date in journals like Perspectives on Psychological Science, Memory & Cognition, Psychological Review, and Psychology & Aging. She serves as an associate editor for Journal of Experimental Psychology: General and a consulting editor for two other journals. Umanath was named an Association for Psychological Science Rising Star in 2018 and received an Honorable Mention for the 2023 J. Don Read Early Career Award from the Society for Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC). She has earned funding from the Association for Psychological Science, the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program.

Dr. Umanath is also the 2015 PS/WiCS Awards for Junior Scientists recipient.

Lab website: https://www.umanathlab.com/
Faculty profile page 

Contact Information: 

Sharda Umanath, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychological Science
Department of Psychological Science
Claremont McKenna College
Seaman Hall 221
888 Columbia Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711 USA

Email: Sharda.Umanath@ClaremontMcKenna.edu
Phone: (909) 607-9332