William Damon (born 1944 in Brockton, Massachusetts) is a professor at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Center on Adolescence, and senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He is one of the world's leading scholars of human development. Damon has done pioneering research on the development of purpose in life and wrote the influential book "The Path to Purpose". Damon has helped design innovative educational methods such as peer collaboration, project-based learning, and the youth charter. Damon also is known for his studies of purposeful philanthropy. His current work includes a study exploring student purpose in higher education and a study of family purpose across generations. Dr. Damon writes on intellectual and social development through the lifespan. He is the founding editor of "New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development" and editor-in-chief of "The Handbook of Child Psychology" (1998 and 2006 editions).