Anders Ericsson, PhD

Third Annual Maestro Award

K. Anders Ericsson (October 23, 1947 – June 17, 2020) was a Swedish psychologist and Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University who was internationally recognized as world's leading theoretical and experimental researcher on the psychological nature of expertise and human performance. Dr. Ericsson studied expert performance in domains such as medicine, music, chess, and sports, focusing exclusively on extended deliberate practice (e.g., high concentration practice beyond one's comfort zone) as a means of how expert performers acquire their superior performance.

Dr. Ericsson earned his doctorate in 1976 from the University of Stockholm, Ericsson, a native of Sweden, came to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University. He served on the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder before joined the faculty at Florida State in 1992. He was the author of nearly 300 publications and the author or editor of several books, including the 2016 book “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise,” which he co-wrote with Robert Pool. In addition, his groundbreaking work has been widely cited in major newspapers and magazines.

Dr. Ericsson was a strong supporter of the mission of ISE and a partner in its success. He attended several ISE consensus conferences and was due to present at an AI and Surgical Metrics consensus conference 2 weeks after he passed away. ISE proudly presented Dr. Ericsson’s family with the third annual Maestro Award in a very moving ceremony. He will be deeply missed.