My official name is Robert M. Krauss, but just about everyone calls me Bob. I'm a professor in the Psychology Department at Columbia University and the (self-annointed) director of the Human Communication Lab (for more information about COMM.LAB click HERE).

The picture at the top of the page shows me in 1948, playing drums in a band called The Bluejackets at the Mayfair Hotel in the Catskills. Our name came from our band jackets, which were (right!) blue. The saxophonist's brother said that my idea for a name, "The Knights of Notes," was too long for a theater marquee. Actually, we could have called ourselves "The Greater Minneapolis Symphony and Choral Society" for all the difference it made.The members of the band went on to careers in fields other than music, something that would not have surprised the Mayfair's guests.

The picture above on the left is closer to what I look like now. Click on the image to hear a conclusion from our recent research on conversational hand gestures. (It's from a "Dateline" segment.)

You can learn more about me by following the links below, but it wouldn't surprise me if you found the COMM.LAB pages more interesting.