Sheena S. Iyengar is the S.T. Lee Professor of Business in the Management Department at Columbia Business School,[1][2] widely and best known as an expert on choice.[3][4][5] Her research focuses on the many facets of decision making, including: why people want choice, what affects how and what we choose, and how we can improve our decision making.[2][6] She has presented TED talks on choice[7] and is the author of The Art of Choosing (2010).[8]
Early life and education
Iyengar was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.[8]: xi Her parents were immigrants from Delhi,[9]India.[8]: xi–xii As a child, she was diagnosed with a rare form of retinitis pigmentosa,[8]: xii an inherited disease of retinal degeneration. By the age of nine, she could no longer read.[6] By the age of sixteen, she was completely blind,[6] although able to perceive light.[8]: xii She remains blind as an adult.[5]
Iyengar's father died of a heart attack when she was thirteen.[8]: xii–xiii This change in family circumstances, and Iyengar's loss of vision, prompted Iyengar's mother to steer her towards higher education and self-sufficiency, saying to Iyengar: "I don't want to hear about men or boys, you've got to stand on your own two feet."[10]
Iyengar's first faculty appointment was at the Sloan School of Management at MIT from July 1997 to June 1998.[11] In 1998, Iyengar joined the faculty at the Columbia Business School, starting as an assistant professor.[11] She has been a full professor at Columbia from July 2007 onward and, since November 2009, the inaugural S.T. Lee Professor of Business.[11][12]
Her principal line of research concerns the psychology of choice, and she has been studying how people perceive and respond to choice since the 1990s.[13] She has authored or coauthored over 30 journal articles.[2] Her research and statements have been cited often in the print media,[14] including by Bloomberg Business Week,[15]CityLab,[16]Money Magazine,[17]The New York Times,[13] and The Washington Post.[18] Media appearances include The Diane Rehm Show[19] (NPR), Marketplace[20] (APM).
Iyengar was the recipient of the 2001 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers[21] for, as the NSF said, "helping lead to a better understanding of how cultural, individual, and situational dimensions of human decision-making can be used to improve people's lives."[22] In 2011, Iyengar was named a member of the Thinkers50,[4] a global ranking of the top 50 management thinkers.[23] In 2012, she was awarded the Dean's Award for Outstanding Core Teaching from Columbia Business School.[24]
In addition to the journal articles mentioned above, Iyengar has written non-academic articles, including for CNN[25][26] and Slate,[27] and many book chapters.[11] She has also presented two TED talks: "The Art of Choosing" (2010) and "How to Make Choosing Easier" (2012).[7]
In the Afterword of the 2011 edition of The Art of Choosing, Iyengar distills one aspect of her work explaining and advocating for choice, arguing for people to take responsibility for their lives and not rely on a supposed fate determined by some "greater force out there."[8]: 270 She says: "Choice allows us to be architects of our future."[8]: 270
In 2023, Iyengar published her second book titled Think Bigger: How to Innovate.
Personal life
Iyengar is divorced from Garud Iyengar, another Columbia University professor. She lives in New York City and shares custody of their son, Ishaan.[13]
