Dr. McCraty underwent advanced training in electrical systems engineering at the NASA Space Center in Huntsville AL, and at the University of Nebraska. He received his B.A. in Technology in 1983, his Masters in Radiational Physics in 1985 and a Ph.D. in Health Sciences in 1999.

Dr. McCraty has an extensive professional background in research and development, systems engineering and instrumentation design. From 1975 through 1978 he served as a field engineer in the Communication Services Division at Motorola. After leaving this position, he was co-founder of a successful engineering company involved in electrostatic problem solving. He developed a new technology that revolutionized the industry, and his designs are still in use by most of the world’s high tech companies.

In 1989, McCraty’s research interests led him to sell his company and take a lead role in establishing the HeartMath Research Center. Here, he has applied his systems engineering background to the study of emotional physiology with a focus on the mechanisms by which positive emotions may promote health and optimal performance. In addition to forming the content of numerous keynotes and scientific presentations, the findings from this research have been published in journals such as the American Journal of Cardiology, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Stress Medicine, Biological Psychology and Integrative Physiological and Behavioral Science. They have also been applied to the development of practical interventions for stress reduction and the optimization of individual and organizational health, well-being, creativity and service.

Dr. McCraty is a Fellow of the American Institute of Stress and member of the International Neurocardiology Network, the American Autonomic Society, the Pavlovian Society and the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback. He is an Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. McCraty and his research team regularly participate in collaborative studies with other U.S. and international scientific, medical and educational institutions; they have worked in joint partnership with research groups at Stanford University, Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia), Southampton General Hospital (England), the University of Montreal, and the Miami Heart Research Institute, among others.

Dr. McCraty has served as Principal Investigator for numerous laboratory research studies examining the effects of positive emotions on heart–brain interactions and on autonomic, cardiovascular, hormonal and immune system function. He has also acted as PI in a number of field studies to determine the outcomes of positive emotion-focused interventions and heart rhythm feedback in diverse organizational and educational settings as well as in various clinical populations.

Dr. McCraty has been interviewed for numerous feature articles in publications such as Prevention, Natural Health, Men's Fitness and American Health magazines, and has appeared on television segments for CNN-Headline News, CNNdotcom, ABC-World News Tonight, ABC-Good Morning America, NBC-Today Show, PBS-Body & Soul and Discovery Channel-Beyond 2000, among many others.