The Center for Human Potential and Public Policy, which was founded in 1998 with an endowment from the Irving B. Harris Foundation, is a university-based center that promotes trans-disciplinary research and training on achievement, health, and well-being across the lifespan.
The Center is located within the Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago. In the University of Chicago tradition, the Center encourages innovative research on human potential and public policy that transcends the academic disciplines. The Center thus has three cross-cutting program areas cultivating student and faculty research across a broad spectrum of interests at the Harris School and the University.
The Center also has an active training program for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The research and training activities of the Center are motivated by the goal of understanding the human condition from pre-birth to old age and identifying the public policies and technologies that support achievement, health, and well-being across the lifespan.