Yochai Shavit joined SCL in 2022 as Director of Research. In his role, Yochai leads a diverse team of researchers working to advance our understanding of human flourishing across the entire life span and rethink the traditional life course to create a New Map of Life. Yochai is passionate about providing empirical evidence to support initiatives aimed at optimizing long lives and age-diverse societies. In his research, Yochai explores age-related changes in motivation and emotion with a focus on ways in which improved emotional well-being and a sense of limited time left in life, both typical of older ages, might affect what people find rewarding about activities and how they decide to spend their time.

Yochai received his PhD in Psychology from Stanford University in 2021. He holds an MA in Gerontology from the University of Haifa and a BA in Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.