James Maas is a social psychologist, Professor at Cornell University, and Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow. He is best known for his work in the field of sleep research, specifically the relationship between sleep and performance. He famously coined the term "power nap" and wrote the best-selling book Power Sleep. He holds a B.A. from Williams College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell.

Maas has produced numerous film specials on sleep research for PBS, BBC, and others.

For his teaching, Maas has received the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Teaching Award and Cornell's Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching.

For over forty years, he has taught Psychology 101 at Cornell. The class has achieved a "near-mythical status" and often has an enrollment of nearly 1600 students, making it one of the largest classes in the country. The class size requires a large venue, Bailey Hall, the university's concert hall. Since he began teaching, he has instructed over 50,000 students.

References

External links

• Maas's faculty page at Cornell
• Power Sleep