Administrative Updates & Announcements
Department Administrator Guillermo De Paz, who has been with the University of Minnesota for 32 years, will be retiring on June 8th. Guillermo has spent the last 17 years with the Department of Psychology, and we can attribute many of our successes as a department to his great leadership as the administrator. He looks forward to traveling and spending time with his grandchildren in his retirement. Congrats, Guillermo!
IT staff member Nou Yin, has resigned from her position effective 6/6/18. Nou has accepted an offer to be a security risk analyst with Securian in St. Paul. Nou has been interested in IT security and she is looking forward to building on what she has learned here at the U. The position is a promotion and it is much closer to home.
IT staff member Ben Cowper, has resigned from his position effective 5/14/18. Ben has decided to pursue freelance work and focus on his first love - film-making. In the short time with the department Ben has helped us transition Psych 1001 to Canvas - no small feat - and make improvements in quality and navigability in our online presence.
Awards & Accomplishments
Graduate students Max Bai, Jill Fish, Lexi Scharmer, and Jingyuan Tian were each awarded a $4,000 Robert W. Eichinger and Korn/Ferry Fellowship for 2018-2019. The purpose of the fellowship is to support exceptional third, fourth, or fifth year graduate students in the Counseling, I/O, PIB and Social programs. Eligible students are interested in pursuing professional careers outside of academia, in industry, consulting, government, or non-profit sectors.
Alumna Dr. Yingchen He received the U of M Graduate School's "Best Dissertation Award" in the Social Sciences and Education for 2018.
Alumnus Dr. Joseph Vitriol received a Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences (FABBS) Doctoral Dissertation Research Excellence Award for 2017-2018. FABBS brings together organizations with interests in advancing the sciences of mind, brain, and behavior. The purpose of the award is to acknowledge and honor graduate student scientists who have conducted doctoral dissertation research of superior scientific quality and broader impact.
Dr. David Wark, alum of the Counseling Psychology program, recently received the Morton Prince Award which is conferred annually by the members of the American Board of Psychological Hypnosis to an individual who has demonstrated distinguished contributions to the development of hypnosis in the science and profession of psychology. Dr. Wark was honored for his decades of work studying the role of hypnosis in improving student academic performance.