Obituary: Remembering Learning Sciences Pioneer David Klahr

Renowned developmental psychologist David Klahr died April 26, 2026, in Pittsburgh. He was born on July 9, 1939, in Springfield, Mass., and was raised in Stamford, Conn. 

For more than 40 years, Klahr was a beloved professor in Carnegie Mellon University’s Psychology Department, where he served as head from 1983 to 1993. As the Walter van Dyke Bingham Professor of Cognitive Development and Education Sciences Emeritus, he embraced creativity, interdisciplinary inquiry and rigorous analysis.

“As both a colleague and department head, David Klahr played a central role in building CMU’s Psychology Department as a leader in the study of human cognition and, in particular, the study of problem solving, scientific reasoning and cognitive development,” said Michael J. Tarr, Kavčić-Moura Professor of Cognitive and Brain Science. “His research on scientific thinking and his leadership across the university also helped foster CMU’s world-class efforts in the learning sciences, integrating insights from cognitive psychology into a data-driven approach to improving learning and classroom instruction.”

Fellow colleague Marcel Just echoed those sentiments, noting that Klahr’s leadership combined intellectual rigor with a collaborative spirit that strengthened the department.

“As a department head, David had to have a special set of talents to coordinate with the activities of about 25 faculty, undergrad and graduate students, staff and university administration. He used his considerable administrative skill, his problem-solving ability and his sense of humor to make the Psychology Department function as an effective, world-leading academic unit,” said Just, D.O. Hebb University Professor of Psychology.

A pioneer in many aspects of his field, Klahr was the first member of CMU’s faculty to be elected to the National Academy of Education. His research focused on investigations of how children come to understand the fundamental principles underlying scientific thinking. Klahr’s work included both basic research with pre-school children and more applied classroom studies of how to improve the teaching of experimental science in elementary school. He worked in a wide variety of schools in the Pittsburgh region, focusing on the relative effectiveness of different instructional methods for teaching children how to design and interpret simple experiments.

Sharon Carver, a former advisee, described Klahr as a valued scientist, mentor and colleague who “helped generations of students to become the best humans and the best scientists they can be.” With an endless supply of energy and an unwavering commitment to respect, he openly shared the risks he took to follow his intellectual passions and encouraged advisees to forge their own paths in the academy. 

In 2004, Klahr and Carver co-founded and then led the Program in Interdisciplinary Education Research (PIER), a Ph.D. fellows program designed to train scientists whose rigorous research on learning conditions related to curriculum, instruction and assessment will improve academic outcomes for pre-kindergarten to postsecondary students. With initial funding from the Institute of Education Sciences, PIER engaged more than 100 students from more than 15 CMU departments. 

Around the same time, Klahr became education director of the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center, now known as LearnLab, which leverages cognitive theory and computational modeling to identify the instructional conditions that lead to robust student learning.

In 2009, the 37^th Carnegie Symposium on Cognition honored Klahr’s contributions to the field by organizing a three-day symposium in his honor. 

“David always focused on the ways that children’s thoughts and actions are driven by how they are processing information available to them — usually in ways that make a lot of sense given their prior knowledge and foundational strategies,” said Carver, director emeritus of the CMU Children’s School, teaching professor of psychology and associate dean for educational affairs at Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Klahr is also remembered for being generous with his time and expertise. He served on three committees of the National Research Council, all of which yielded books that are now broadly impacting educational researchers and educators. He contributed to excellence in research and publication by serving on grant review committees, journal boards, advisory boards and as an editor for the Carnegie Symposium Series. 

Klahr was a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Sciences, a member of the governing board of the Cognitive Development Society and a member of the Society for Research in Child Development and the Cognitive Science Society. He also served on the National Science Foundation’s Subcommittee on Memory and Cognitive Processes and the National Institutes of Health’s Human Development and Aging Study Section. 

Klahr earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in organizations and social behavior from CMU’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration (now the Tepper School of Business). Prior to joining CMU’s faculty, he was an assistant professor at the University of Chicago; a visiting research fellow at the University of Stirling, Scotland; and a visiting Fulbright lecturer at the London School of Business. 

Klahr is survived by Pam Weiss, his wife of 45 years, and his four children, Anna, Josh (Suzanne McKechnie Klahr), Sophie and Ben Klahr, his grandchildren Alex and Julia Klahr and his step-grandchildren Desmond and Sedona Reilly. He is preceded in death by his parents, Alexander and Lillian Klahr, and older sister Helen Hirshhorn. 

His family noted he loved reciting poetry, singing and spending summer months at Chautauqua Institution, listening to lectures in the morning and sailing in the afternoon, bicycling around the grounds. 

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations may be sent to any of the following organizations and institutions: Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh, Congregation Dor Hadash, Chautauqua Institution and Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.