| Cindy M. Meston, Ph.D. | Current Graduate Students | Former Graduate Students | Research Staff | Lab Scrapbook |
Cindy M. Meston, Ph.D.
Professor, The University of Texas at Austin
Director, The Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory
E-mail: mestoncm@utexas.edu
CINDY M. MESTON is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and the Director of the Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin (www.mestonlab.com). Dr. Meston received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1995. She completed her postgraduate training at the University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, in the departments of Sexual and Reproductive Medicine, Psychiatry, and Urology. From 1996-1998 she received a Fellowship from the Ford Foundation in New York to study the effects of early childhood sexual abuse on adult sexual function. She joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in 1998 and was promoted to Full Professor of Clinical Psychology in 2007.
Dr. Meston has received numerous international awards and accolades for her ground-breaking research on the consequences of childhood sexual abuse on adult sexuality and on the psychophysiology of women’s sexual arousal. Her scholarly record includes more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, over 35,000 citations, and an h-index exceeding 80. (For cv, see here). Since 2024, she has been ranked the #1 most highly cited scholar worldwide in Sexual Function and #2 in Sexual Medicine (scholargps). Since 2022, she has been ranked one of the top 1000 psychologists in the United States (Research.com). In 2016, she was named one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women in the world by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London, England. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-38012048).
Dr. Meston’s contributions have been recognized through numerous prestigious honors, most notably the 2018 Career Service Award from the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and the 2026 Research Excellence Award from the International Society for Sexual Medicine, awarded for transformative contributions to the field. Importantly, Dr. Meston is the first woman and the first psychologist to receive this distinction. Additional awards for Meston’s research include an International Research Award from the Athena Institute for Women’s Wellness, a Distinguished Professor Award from the Canadian Research Foundation, the 2014 Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellowship, the Wulf H. Utian Endowed Lecturer Award from the North American Menopause Society, and the 2026 University of Texas at Austin President’s Associates Teaching Award.
Dr. Meston is the Past President of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, the largest professional society dedicated to women’s sexuality, and an endowed Fellow of the Wayne H. Holtzman Regents Chair in Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. She has served as an invited member, chair, or co-chair for seven international consultation consensus panels for the definition and treatment of women’s sexual dysfunction. Recommendations from these committees are sent to the World Health Organization (WHO), National Institutes of Health (NIH), United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMEA), and worldwide ministries of health and regulators to serve as the basis for policies concerning urological diseases.
Meston has made several television appearances (e.g., The Rachel Ray Show, The Dr. Phil Show, ABC (20/20), NBC National News), and conducted numerous national radio interviews (e.g., NPR, CNN Headline News), and she has given over 300 professional presentations (See her presentation at Idea City here: https://www.ideacity.ca/video/cindy-meston-people-sex/)) Her book Why Women Have Sex (co-authored with Dr. David Buss) has been translated into eleven languages and has received extensive media coverage. Articles on Meston’s research and on her book Why Women Have Sex have appeared in over 300 newspapers (e.g., Science Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA today), magazines (e.g., NewYorker, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar) and online publications.
