DATA News: March 2018


Administrative Updates & Announcements

The Department of Psychology is pleased to announce that the search to fill the newly created grant-accounting assistant position was a success and that Kristen Abernethy accepted our offer. She will begin transitioning to her new duties on Monday, February 19th.  

As Kristen is currently working in the accounting area, we will begin the search for someone to replace her. You will not notice any changes right away. Kristen will remain in her current office and you should continue to contact Terry Klosterman, Kamran Motevaze and Kristen with any accounting questions you have for now. Also, continue to contact Liz Gates for grant related issues. An announcement will be sent out at a later date to describe changes that will affect you as accounting and grant duties are re-assigned.


Awards & Accomplishments

Professor Jonathan Gewirtz, Associate Chair for Curriculum and Director of Undergraduate Studies, has been awarded the Horace T. Morse Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education. The award honors individuals who are judged to be among the University's most outstanding undergraduate teachers. Details on the award may be found here

Professor Alex Rothman, director of the Social Psychology area, has been awarded a 2017-18 Award for Outstanding Contributions to Graduate and Professional Education. This honor is awarded to exceptional candidates nominated by colleges in their quest to identify excellence in graduate and professional education. More information and a list of awardees may be found here.

The Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, with University of Minnesota PIs Bill Iacono and Monica Luciana, was featured in the Today Show. The MCTFR is one of 21 sites across the US implementing the study. Watch here.

Social area graduate student Richie Lenne received the Preregistration Challenge Award from the Center for Open Science for research published in the Journal of Health Psychology.

Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavior Genetics (PIB) and Quantitative/Psychometric Methods (QPM) graduate student Gretchen Saunders received the Eva O. Miller Fellowship for the 2018-2019 academic year. The title of her fellowship proposal is “The Relationship Between Early Substance Exposure and Adult Health Outcomes Using Causally Informative Designs.” She is jointly advised by Matt McGue (PIB) and Niels Waller (QPM).

The Department of Psychology is delighted to announce the recipients of the first annual Psychology Department Distinguished Alumni Awards. Nominations were invited from graduate and undergraduate alumni with the expectation that we would make one award from each area. We received over 20 nominations yielding an exceptional pool of candidates. The nominations were reviewed by a selection committee, who provided recommendations to the department.

The Distinguished Alumni award winners are:

Mary P. Koss, Ph.D.

Dr. Koss received her Ph.D. from the clinical psychology program in 1972. She is currently Regents’ Professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, Division of Health Promotion Sciences at the University of Arizona.

Heather J. Peters, Ph.D. LP, CC-AASP

Dr. Peters received her B.A. from our department in 2000. She is currently Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Drs. Koss and Peters have been invited to attend our Centennial gala on May 11th to receive their awards. You will learn more about their achievements at that time. Dr. Koss cannot make it due to another travel commitment but she plans to capture her acceptance on video to be shared during the event. Dr. Peters is able to attend.


Graduated

Congratulations to our recent Department of Psychology Ph. D graduate!

Jackson Graves
Area: CAB
Advisor: Andrew Oxenham
Dissertation Title: Perception of multiple pitches: Sequential and simultaneous pitch relationships

Juraj Mesik
Area: CAB
Advisors: Steve Engel & Sheng He
Dissertation Title: Context-dependent adaptation in the visual system

Sarah Semmel
Area: I/O
Advisor: Deniz Ones
Dissertation Title: Multiple Regression in Industrial Organizational Psychology: Relative Importance and Model Sensitivity

Anonymous