The State of the Department
Greetings from Chicago! The past year has been a busy one for faculty and students in the Psychology Department. I’m happy to have the opportunity to give you a taste of what we’ve been doing.
A major focus this year has been recruiting excellent new faculty colleagues. We undertook a large-scale faculty search and succeeded in bringing three outstanding assistant professors to the department. Marc Berman, a cognitive neuroscientist, and Jenifer Kubota, a social psychologist, joined us this year. Alex Shaw, whose work spans developmental and social psychology, will join the department in July. You can learn more about Marc, Jeni, and Alex, and their innovative programs of research in this newsletter. In addition, we are very fortunate to have Sarah Gaither, a social and developmental psychologist, join us this year via the prestigious Provost’s Career Enhancement Postdoctoral Scholarship.
In late-breaking news, we have also had success in recruiting outstanding senior faculty. We recently learned that Edward Awh and Edward Vogel, both leaders in the cognitive neuroscience of attention, will be joining the department in the coming year. Awh and Vogel will add to the Department’s strength in cognitive neuroscience and enrich our connections to the University’s new Neuroscience Institute. We look forward to welcoming them to Chicago.
Collaboration is at the core of our department. Innovative collaborations are the fuel for many of our scientific discoveries. In this newsletter, we highlight two examples of fruitful faculty collaborations: Sian Beilock and Susan Levine have developed a multi-faceted collaboration that investigates mathematics and science learning and the factors that can impede as well as support children’s learning, and Howard Nusbaum has brought together an interdisciplinary team spanning the Department and the University to bring multiple perspectives to bear in understanding wisdom and the conditions and experiences that support wise decisions. Doctoral students play a critical role in making collaborative research possible, and so we also highlight three student-led collaborations – just three examples of the groundbreaking research in which our students are engaged.
The achievements and efforts of many members of the Department received recognition this year. Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, a third-year doctoral student, was awarded the Jane Morton and Henry C. Murphy Award in acknowledgement of his excellent work supporting diversity on campus. Anne Henly, Senior Lecturer and Director of the Undergraduate Research Initiative in Psychology, was awarded a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, a fitting acknowledgement of her contributions as master teacher and mentor. Among the faculty, John Cacioppo was appointed to the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science, Jean Decety was awarded the IPSEN Foundation’s Neuropsychology Award, Sian Beilock was elected to the American Academy of Kinesiology, and I was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. With a lovely symmetry, the Association for Psychological Science recognized a junior and a senior member of the Department: Daniel Casasanto received the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformational Early Career Contributions and Susan Goldin-Meadow received the William James Award for a Lifetime Achievement in Basic Research.
College students are a vital part of our department community. This year, over a hundred students were part of our laboratory research teams, and a number of students were able to carry out independent research projects. Nineteen graduating seniors completed honors theses, each involving an independent laboratory project, paper, and Honors Day presentation. Their theses spanned every corner of the field of psychological sciences—neuroscience, social psychology, cognitive and developmental psychology, and many projects involved collaborations outside of our department, for example with groups in the Pritzker School of Medicine, School of Social Service Administration, Department of Comparative Human Development, and Chicago Booth School of Business—truly underscoring both the interdisciplinary nature of the research in the department and the creative energy of our students.
We hear from College alumni that the opportunity to engage in independent research is among the most important and memorable aspects of their time at Chicago. These opportunities receive critical support from friends of the department. We are extremely grateful to Earl and Barbara Franklin for their generous, continuing support of summer research opportunities for undergraduate students, and to Norman H. Anderson who has provided new support to allow undergraduate students to present their experimental work at scientific meetings.
This year we welcomed Dale Barr back to give the Starkey Duncan Alumni Lecture. In addition to giving a great research talk, he brought home the ways in which his experiences at Chicago continue to influence his thinking. Maintaining connections to alumni and friends is important to us, and I hope that this newsletter does a bit to strengthen the ties.
Best wishes for a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year,
