By Linda A. Camras & Joseph J. Campos.
A key founding member of ISRE, Dr. Paul Ekman passed away on November 17, 2025 at the age of 91 years. Many of us consider Paul to be the “Father” of modern emotion scholarship whose early work set the stage for revival of interest in (and indeed, recognition of) emotion as a distinct ontological entity after an extended period in the mid-20th century during which emotion was considered an epiphenomenal offshoot of cognition. Subsequent to his landmark studies of emotion recognition in a number of cultures, most famously involving the Fore people in New Guinea, Paul extended his research to cover topics including the physiological concomitants of emotion, emotion display rules, and (more generally) deceptive behavior. Paul also made an enduring contribution to the rigorous, scientific study of emotion by developing (with his colleague Wallace Friesen) the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), an anatomically-based coding system for facial behavior that disentangled the objective description of facial muscle actions from inferences or assumptions regarding their emotion meaning. Many ISRE members have directly benefited from Paul’s work by adopting FACS for use in their own research and/or being inspired more generally by his research and thinking.
Although Paul conducted no developmental studies, his broad range of emotion-related interests included development in infancy. The authors of this short essay are developmental psychologists one of whom (Linda) was accepted by Paul as a postdoctoral scholar along with Harriet Oster during the time that FACS was being created. Harriet and I served among the initial “testers” of that system. Paul also supported Harriet in her creation of BabyFACS, a related facial coding system that incorporates developmental differences between the facial muscular systems of infants and adults. In addition, Paul engaged in many productive discussions about development with both authors of this essay. Like the authors, Paul attended the first ISRE conference, organized in 1985 by Joe Campos, another founding ISRE member. Both Campos and Ekman served on ISRE’s initial Board of Directors.
Paul developed close relationships with many scholars including Robert Levenson, another founding member of ISRE. Bob’s strong personal ties with Paul lasted for many years. From his own perspective, Bob has written a comprehensive obituary for Paul that will be appearing in a number of professional venues. We are pleased to be able to include a link to Bob’s essay herein (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42761-025-00346-5). Interested readers will find it to be a moving tribute to a person whose influence on the field of emotion can not be overestimated.
It is heartening to read these thoughts from those who knew Paul as a colleague and friend. May ISRE continue to advance in bringing his studies and knowledge to the benefit of humanity. He lived a legendary life well, between man and emotion. May his spirit continue to help and protect humanity through those words of truth, through its voice.