Scott A. Langenecker, Ph.D.

Professor of Psychiatry, University of Utah

Biography

Scott A. Langenecker, Ph.D. is a clinical neuropsychologist and is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah. He is a native of rural Wisconsin, completing his undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (1993), graduate work at Marquette University in Clinical Psychology (2001), Internship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (2001), and postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Michigan (2003). He was a faculty member at the University of Michigan from 2003-2012 and was the Director of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2012-2018. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Utah since 2018.

Dr. Langenecker's research and clinical work focuses on the lifespan approach to mood and anxiety disorders, with particular focus on life transitions (e.g., adolescence to adulthood, adulthood to retirement). He is developing and adapting biological and cognitive tools to understand ways to identify and treat individuals with mood disorders to (1) reduce recurrence, (2) decrease episode length and severity, (3) decrease morbidity and suicide risk, and (4) improve functioning and quality of life. Recent work includes using passive biometrics (phones, watches, respiration vests) to identify physical and emotional responses to stressful events. Recent work also includes use of rumination-focused CBT to reduce recurrences of depression in youth.