Although our next award recipient needs no introduction in our field, I wanted to highlight a few of his distinguished accomplishments. 

Before Glenn Schellenberg became a rockstar music perception and cognition scientist, he was an actual rock star, songwriting and playing keyboards in a synth-pop band in the 80s as well as in several other bands. He also composed music for film and children’s television, receiving an award nomination for one of his film music compositions. 

In our own field, Glenn has had a remarkable career spanning over 30 years, publishing more than 150 journal articles and book chapters - work that has been cited over 20,000 times. He has significantly advanced the field in many different areas, including music and emotion, liking for music, music perception and cognition in infants and children, memory for music, music processing in those with Williams syndrome and those with cochlear implants, individual differences in music ability, and the effect of background music on cognitive processing. But arguably, his biggest contributions have been to further our understanding of the relationship between musical and non-musical abilities and traits. Along with his collaborators, he played a primary role in debunking the Mozart effect, showing that cognitive enhancements following music listening are likely the result of simple improvements in arousal and mood. He published one of the first large-scale random assignment studies examining the effect of music training on intelligence and followed this up with extensive research examining causes and consequences of music training. This work showed that self-selection and pre-existing differences likely play a large role in cognitive differences between musicians and non-musicians and highlight a complex interplay between genetic and environmental influences. 

Glenn is particularly known for his focus on scientific and statistical rigour – something that came up repeatedly by his award nominators. Although every introductory psychology textbook teaches students that “correlation does not imply causation,” and that we should choose the simplest explanation that fits the data, in practice, it can be easy to get carried away with our enthusiasm for the positive aspects of music. But don’t worry – Glenn will make sure that you don’t get too carried away ☺. He reminds us of our ethical responsibility to hold ourselves and others to a high standard of scientific integrity. Glenn has never been afraid to challenge popular ideas, publish null results, or change his mind in the face of compelling data. 

Beyond his individual achievements, Glenn has been an inspiring mentor, fostering critical thinking, curiosity, independence, intellectual courage, confidence, clear writing, and good scientific design and reasoning in his diverse students and trainees, many of whom have gone on to successful careers in various fields. For me personally, Glenn showed the utmost respect for and interest in my ideas, but also toward me more holistically as a person, and this was a feeling that was echoed in many of the letters of support submitted by other former trainees. We feel that we are unquestionably better scientists because of his mentorship and have been exceptionally privileged to have had the opportunity to learn from him. 

I am incredibly honoured to introduce my mentor and friend, Glenn Schellenberg, as a recipient of the SMPC Lifetime Achievement Award. 

• As read by Katie Corrigall at the 2024 SMPC Meeting