Clifford Saron, PhD

Clifford Saron, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the Center for Mind and Brain and MIND Institute at the University of California–Davis. Cliff has had a long-standing interest in the effects of contemplative practice on physiology and behavior. In the early 1990s he conducted field research investigating Tibetan Buddhist mind training under the auspices of the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and has been associated with the Mind & Life Institute since 1990.

A faculty member at Mind & Life Summer Research Institutes in the US and Europe and a former member of the Mind & Life Institute Steering Council, he received the inaugural Mind & Life Service Award in 2018. Cliff directs the Shamatha Project, a multidisciplinary longitudinal investigation of the effects of intensive meditation on physiological and psychological processes central to well-being. His group has also investigated multiple 1-month retreats at Spirit Rock along similar lines.