Noble, Kimberly G. (kgn2106)

Kimberly Noble

Professor of Neuroscience and Education
Director: Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development (NEED) Lab
212-678-3486

Office Location:

1052 Building 528

Scholarly Interests

Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a neuroscientist and board-certified pediatrician, she directs the Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development (NEED) lab, where she and her team study how socioeconomic inequality relates to children's cognitive, emotional, and brain development.  Her work examines socioeconomic disparities in cognitive development, as well as brain structure and function, across infancy, childhood and adolescence. She is particularly interested in understanding how early in infancy or toddlerhood such disparities develop; the modifiable environmental differences that account for these disparities; and the ways we might harness this research to inform the design of interventions. She has funding from NIH and numerous foundations, and she is one of the principal investigators of Baby's First Years, the first clinical trial of poverty reduction to assess the causal impact of income on children’s cognitive, emotional and brain development in the first three years of life. Dr. Noble received her undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her residency in pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. She was awarded the 2017 Association for Psychological Science Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions, and the 2021 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest. Dr. Noble is an elected Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. Her TED talk has more than 2 million views to date, and her work has received worldwide attention in the popular press.

Educational Background

  • BA, University of Pennsylvania, Biological Basis of Behavior
  • Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Neuroscience
  • M.D., University of Pennsylvania, Medicine
  • Resident, Pediatrics, New York Presbyterian Hospital / Columbia University Medical Center

Selected Publications

See a complete list of publications here:

https://needlabcolumbia.wixsite.com/needlab/publications

Selected Publications:

Noble, K.G. and Giebler, M. A. (2020) The Neuroscience of Socioeconomic Inequality. Current Opinions in Behavioral Sciences.  doi: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.05.007

Troller-Renfree, S.V., Brito, N.H., Desai, P.M., Leon-Santos, A.,Wiltshire, C. A., Motten, S.N., Meyer, J.S., Isler, J.R., Fifer, W.P., & Noble, K.G. (2020) Infants of Mothers with Higher Physiological Stress Show Alterations in Brain Function. Developmental Science. doi: 10.1111/desc.12976

Merz, E.C., Maskus, E.A., Melvin, S.A., He, X., Noble, K.G. (2019), Socioeconomic Disparities in Language Input are Associated with Children’s Language-Related Brain Structure and Reading Skills. Child Development. doi:10.1111/cdev.13239

Merz, E.C., Desai, P., Maskus, E.A., Melvin, S., Rehman, R., Torres, S., Meyer, J., He, X., and Noble, K.G. (2019) Socioeconomic Disparities in Chronic Physiologic Stress Are Associated with Brain Structure in Children. Biological Psychiatry. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2019.05.024

Noble, K.G., Houston, Bartsch, H., Kan, E., Kuperman, J.M., Akshoomoff, N., Amaral, D.G., Bloss, C.S., Libiger, O., Schork, N.J., Murray, S.S., Casey, B.J., Chang, L., Ernst, T.M., Frazier, J.A., Gruen, J.R., Kennedy, D.N., Van Zijl, P., Mostofsky, S., Kaufmann, W.E., Keating, B.G., Kenet, T., Dale, A.M.,  Jernigan, T.L., & Sowell, E.R. for the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition, and Genetics Study. (2015) Family Income, Parental Education and Brain Development in Children and Adolescents. Nature Neuroscience. 18 (5): 773-778. 

Noble, K.G., Engelhardt, L.E., Brito, N.H., Mack, L., Nail, E., Barr, R.F., Fifer, W.P., Elliott, A. (2015) Socioeconomic Disparities in Neurocognitive Development in the First Two Years of Life. Developmental Psychobiology. DOI: 10.1002/dev.21303 

Brito, N.H. and Noble, K.G. (2014). Socioeconomic Status and Structural Brain Development. Frontiers in Neuroscience. 8:276. 

Noble, K.G. ,Fifer, W.P., Nomura, Y., Rauh, V.A., Andrews, H. (2012). Academic achievement varies with gestational age among children born at term. Pediatrics. 130 (2): 1-8.

Noble, K.G., Houston, S., Kan, E., Bookheimer S.Y., Sowell, E.R. (2012) Neural Correlates of Socioeconomic Status in the Developing Human Brain.  Developmental Science. 15(4): 516-527. 

Noble, K.G., Grieve, S.M., Korgaonkar, M.S., and Brickman, A.M. (2012) Hippocampal volume varies with educational attainment across the life-span. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.6: 1-10. 

Noble, K.G., McCandliss, B.D., Farah, M.J. Socioeconomic gradients predict individual differences in neurocognitive abilities.  Developmental Science. (2007) 10(4): 464-480. 

Noble, K.G., Wolmetz, M.E., Ochs, L.G., Farah, M.J., McCandliss, B.D. Brain-behavior relationships in reading acquisition are modulated by socioeconomic status factors. Developmental Science. (2006) 9(6): 642-654.  

Noble, K.G., Norman, M. F., Farah, M.J.  Neurocognitive correlates of socioeconomic status in kindergarten children.  Developmental Science. (2005)  8: 74-87.

  • American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public
    Interest (Senior Career)
  • Dean’s Grant for Tenured Faculty
  • Fellow, Association for Psychological Science
  • Association for Psychological Science, Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions
  • John Wiley Distinguished Speaker Award, International Society for Developmental Psychobiology 
  • American Psychological Association featured scientist, #ThankAScientist campaign 
  • Dean’s Grant for Pre-Tenured Faculty 
  • Marquis’ Who’s Who in America 
  • Association for Psychological Science “Rising Star"
  • NIH Early Independence Award Finalist 
  • John Merck Scholars Finalist 
  • Travel Award, National Academy of Sciences Sackler Colloquium
  • Driscoll Children’s Fund Scholar 
  • David B.P. Goodman Award for Meritorious Clinical Research 
  • Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society 
  • Phi Beta Kappa 
  • Magna cum Laude 

Kimberly Noble, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a neuroscientist and board-certified pediatrician, she directs the Neurocognition, Early Experience and Development (NEED) lab where she and her team study how socioeconomic inequality relates to in children's cognitive and brain development.  Her work examines socioeconomic disparities in cognitive development, as well as brain structure and function, across infancy, childhood and adolescence. She is particularly interested in understanding how early in infancy or toddlerhood such disparities develop; the modifiable environmental differences that account for these disparities; and the ways we might harness this research to inform the design of interventions. Along with a multidisciplinary team from around the country, with funding from NIH and a consortium of foundations, she is currently leading the first clinical trial of poverty reduction to assess the causal impact of income on children’s cognitive, emotional and brain development in the first three years of life. Dr. Noble received her undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, completed postdoctoral training at the Sackler Institute of Developmental Psychobiology of Weill Cornell Medical College, and completed her residency in pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center / Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York - Presbyterian. She is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and was awarded the 2017 APS Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. Her work linking family income to brain structure across childhood and adolescence has received worldwide attention in the popular press.

    September 2018 – August 2023
    R01HD093707-01
    NICHD
    $2,417,941
    Socioeconomic Disparities in Cognitive and Neural Development in the First 3 years
    Role: PI

    September 2017 – June 2022
    R01HD087384-01
    NICHD
    $7,858,284
    Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI (Multiple PI’s: Duncan, Magnuson, Noble)

    September 2019 – July 2022
    Valhalla Charitable Foundation
    $682,000
    Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2021
    New York City Office of Economic Opportunity
    $500,000
    Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    March 2018 – June 2023
    Weitz Family Foundation
    $2,400,000
    Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    December 2017 – January 2023
    Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (Silicon Valley Community Foundation)
    $1,800,000
    Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    December 1, 2018 – November 30, 2020
    Perigee Foundation
    $1,200,000
    Baby’s First Years: Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    April 2016 – March 2019 (no-cost extension)
    Sherwood Foundation
    $1,150,000
    Poverty Reduction and Child Development in Omaha Neighborhoods
    Role: PI

    January 2018 – December 2022
    Schusterman Family Foundation
    $1,000,000
    Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: Co-PI (with G. Duncan)

    June 2018 – May 2023
    JPB Foundation
    $750,000
    Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI


    December 1, 2018 – November 30, 2022
    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
    $400,000
    Baby’s First Years: Household Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    July 2017 – June 2020
    Ford Foundation
    $400,000
    Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI

    January 2018 – December 2018 (no-cost extension)
    Child Welfare Fund
    $100,000
    Income and Child Development in the First Three Years of Life
    Role: PI
    • American Academy of Pediatrics
    • Association for Psychological Science
    • Cognitive Neuroscience Society
    • International Society for Developmental Psychobiology
    • Society for Research in Child Development
    • Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group
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