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Best Female Scientists
2025

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Best Female Scientists

D-Index
111
Citations
61851
World Ranking
832
National Ranking
505

Medicine

D-Index
116
Citations
66790
World Ranking
4282
National Ranking
2341

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2025 - Research.com Best Female Scientists Award
  • 2016 - Member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM)
  • 2004 - Hellman Fellow

Overview

Elissa S. Epel is affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco in the United States. Their research spans multiple fields with a primary focus on Medicine and Psychology, contributing extensively to Clinical Psychology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health, Physiology, Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health, and General Health Professions.

The main topics explored in their work include:

  • Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
  • Birth, Development, and Health
  • Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
  • Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
  • Stress Responses and Cortisol
  • Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
  • Tryptophan and brain disorders

Frequent publication venues for Elissa S. Epel comprise:

  • Psychosomatic Medicine
  • Translational Psychiatry
  • Health Psychology
  • Psychoneuroendocrinology
  • Psychological Medicine

They have often collaborated with several researchers, including:

  • Barbara Laraia
  • Jue Lin
  • Aric A. Prather
  • A. Janet Tomiyama
  • Nancy E. Adler

Recent published papers by Elissa S. Epel include:

  • "Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms," 2021, Ageing Research Reviews
  • "DNA methylation GrimAge version 2," 2022, Aging
  • "Efficacy of Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the Treatment of Insomnia Symptoms Among Pregnant Women," 2020, JAMA Psychiatry
  • ""GrimAge," an epigenetic predictor of mortality, is accelerated in major depressive disorder," 2021, Translational Psychiatry
  • "Early life adversity, pubertal timing, and epigenetic age acceleration in adulthood," 2021, Developmental Psychobiology

Elissa S. Epel has been recognized by professional organizations, including election as a Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2016 and receiving the Hellman Fellow award in 2004.

Best Publications

  • Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: preliminary data in healthy white women.

    Nancy E. Adler;Elissa S. Epel;Grace Castellazzo;Jeannette R. Ickovics

  • Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress

    Elissa S. Epel;Elizabeth H. Blackburn;Jue Lin;Firdaus S. Dhabhar

  • Geroscience: Linking Aging to Chronic Disease

    Brian K. Kennedy;Shelley L. Berger;Anne Brunet;Judith Campisi;Judith Campisi

  • Stress, eating and the reward system

    Tanja C. Adam;Elissa S. Epel

  • Stress may add bite to appetite in women: a laboratory study of stress-induced cortisol and eating behavior

    Elissa Epel;Rachel Lapidus;Bruce McEwen;Kelly Brownell

  • Perceived emotional intelligence, stress reactivity, and symptom reports: Further explorations using the trait meta-mood scale.

    Peter Salovey;Laura R. Stroud;Alison Woolery;Elissa S. Epel

  • Human telomere biology: A contributory and interactive factor in aging, disease risks, and protection

    Elizabeth H. Blackburn;Elissa S. Epel;Jue Lin

  • From ideas to efficacy: The ORBIT model for developing behavioral treatments for chronic diseases.

    Susan M. Czajkowski;Lynda H. Powell;Nancy Adler;Sylvie Naar-King

  • Sex differences in stress responses: social rejection versus achievement stress.

    Laura R Stroud;Peter Salovey;Elissa S Epel

  • More than a feeling: A unified view of stress measurement for population science.

    Elissa S. Epel;Alexandra D. Crosswell;Stefanie E. Mayer;Aric A. Prather

  • Neurobiological and neuropsychiatric effects of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and DHEA sulfate (DHEAS).

    Nicole Maninger;Owen M. Wolkowitz;Victor I. Reus;Elissa S. Epel

  • The Effects of Message Framing on Mammography Utilization

    Sara M. Banks;Peter Salovey;Susan Greener;Alexander J. Rothman

  • Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators

    Tonya L. Jacobs;Elissa S. Epel;Jue Lin;Elizabeth H. Blackburn

  • Stress and body shape: Stress-induced cortisol secretion is consistently greater among women with central fat.

    Elissa S. Epel;Bruce McEwen;Teresa Seeman;Karen Matthews

  • Socio-economic differentials in peripheral biology: Cumulative allostatic load

    Teresa Seeman;Elissa Epel;Tara Gruenewald;Arun Karlamangla

  • Cell Aging in Relation to Stress Arousal and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors

    Elissa S. Epel;Jue Lin;Frank H. Wilhelm;Owen M. Wolkowitz

  • Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes: a pilot study

    Dean Ornish;Jue Lin;Jennifer Daubenmier;Gerdi Weidner

  • Food Insecurity Is Inversely Associated with Diet Quality of Lower-Income Adults

    Cindy W. Leung;Elissa S. Epel;Lorrene D. Ritchie;Patricia B. Crawford

  • What is eating you? Stress and the drive to eat.

    Lisa M. Groesz;Shannon McCoy;Jenna Carl;Laura Saslow

  • Can meditation slow rate of cellular aging? Cognitive stress, mindfulness, and telomeres

    Elissa Epel;Jennifer Daubenmier;Judith Tedlie Moskowitz;Susan Folkman

Frequent Co-Authors

Elizabeth H. Blackburn
Elizabeth H. Blackburn University of California, San Francisco
Owen M. Wolkowitz
Owen M. Wolkowitz University of California, San Francisco
Nancy E. Adler
Nancy E. Adler University of California, San Francisco
Eli Puterman
Eli Puterman University of British Columbia
Synthia H. Mellon
Synthia H. Mellon University of California, San Francisco
Victor I. Reus
Victor I. Reus University of California, San Francisco
Frederick Hecht
Frederick Hecht University of California, San Francisco
Aoife O'Donovan
Aoife O'Donovan University of California, San Francisco
Mary A. Whooley
Mary A. Whooley University of California, San Francisco
Claudia Buss
Claudia Buss University of California, Irvine

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