CU Psychology Department News
May 2008
CU Clinical Psychology professor David Miklowitz received two separate awards
recently. One award was the Clinical Research Award given out annually by Emory University to a
psychopathology researcher in the US. The other award was the
Monica Fooks Memorial Lectureship of Sommerville
College, Oxford University.
April 2008
CU
Psychology Behavioral Neuroscience professors Susan Patterson and
Bob Spencer, and Behavioral Genetics professors Mike Stallings
and Matt McQueen were awarded research grants from the CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor for
Research’s Innovative Seed Grant Program. This competitive program was instituted “to
involve new initiatives and take investigators in creative, and sometimes high-risk/reward directions;
and, have tangible payoffs in terms of future funding, scholarly or artistic impact, and development
of new collaborations.”
CU Psychology graduate students Lee Altamirano and Holen Katz (Cognitive and Social areas, respectively) were named two of the recipients of the 2008 Beverly Sears Graduate Students Grants Award. The monetary award is given on a competitive basis every spring to assist students with their research.
CU
Cognitive Psychology Professor Akira Miyake and CU Psychology Senior Instructor
Brett King were named two of the recipients of the
2008 CU Parents Association’s
Marinus G. Smith Recognition Award. The award recognizes faculty, instructors and staff who have made a
significant impact on the lives of one or more undergraduates. More information forthcoming.
March 2008
CU Clinical Psychology professor David Miklowitz and his former CU Psychology
graduate student now Boulder psychologist Elizabeth George have co-authored a book on
helping parents deal with bipolar disease in teens, whether diagnosed or not. Read the
CU press release
for more information.
January 2008
The Department welcomes a new faculty member this Spring. Matt Jones
was hired into the Cognitive area. Read a little more about Matt.
December 2007
CU Cognitive Psychology Professor Yuko Munakata was awarded a Faculty
Fellowship by CU-Boulder’s Council on Research & Creative Work
(CRCW).
A research article by recent CU Psychology Behavior Genetics hire
Matt Keller and collaborators was chosen by the American Journal of
Psychiatry’s editors as “particularly interesting and important” in the
journal’s
end-of-year editorial
(look for “Adverse Life Events...” on this page). You can also read the full
research article.
November 2007
CU Psychology undergraduate advisor Patty Berger was honored by the CU Women’s Resource Center as one of several “Women Who Make a Difference” at CU for 2007.
October 2007
The National Science Foundation has named CU (all three campuses) as the third-highest-ranked public institution in terms of federally financed research in psychology among 150 universities. Across all disciplines CU remained in the top 10 percent, a position it has held for the past six years. Read the CU press release.
September 2007
CU Psychology Senior Instructor Brett King was named a Grand Marshal of
this weekend’s Homecoming parade. This honor was bestowed on Brett because he recently received
the 2007 Teacher Recognition Award, one of very few faculty awards given by students. Read the
CU press release.
CU Clinical Psychology professor David Miklowitz’s research received some
popular press. An article in Boulder’s Daily Camera newspaper describes how Miklowitz
and a colleague at Stanford will examine the extent to which early identification and treatment of
children and teens at high risk for developing bipolar disorder can minimize future impairment. The
study is funded by a $600,000 grant from NIMH. Read
the online article.
The Department welcomes one new faculty member this Fall. Matthew Keller was hired into the Behavioral Genetics area. Read a little more about Matt.
August 2007
CU Cognitive Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Professor Randy O’Reilly and Clinical
Psychology and Behavior Genetics Professor Soo Rhee were selected to receive one of the new
Provost Faculty Achievement Awards. The awards will be presented at CU’s Fall Convocation in October.
July 2007
CU Clinical Psychology and Behavior Genetics Professor
Erik Willcutt received the APA’s Division 53 (Child and Adolescent Clinical
Psychology) Early Career Research Award, to be presented at
the APA annual meeting in August.
CU Cognitive Psychology graduate student Brendan Depue and
Cognitive Psychology Faculty members Tim Curran and Marie Banich
published an article in Science. The research concerns the suppression of emotional
memories. They found support for the hypothesis that not only can this type of suppression occur,
but also that it appears to be under the control of two different prefrontal cortical regions.
Read the Science article
online. The article has also gotten a large amount of popular press, including CBS News
online and the Denver Post.
June 2007
CU Psychology Professor Emeritus Ken Hammond was featured in an article in the Rocky Mountain News (and syndicated in the Boulder Camera). The article describes how Ken published his 12th book a few months ago, and recently turned 90. Read the article online.
CU Social Psychology Professors Bernadette Park and Chick
Judd and Psychology Instructor Melody Sadler’s research was featured
in an article in the New York Times, as well as in an interview with Bernadette which
was broadcast on Colorado Public Radio. Lead author of the research study mentioned in these news
stories was Josh Correll, who got his PhD recently at CU. Ex-CU postdoc Bernd Wittenbrink was also
an author. (Both Josh and Bernd are now at the University of Chicago.) Read a PDF of
the Times article. You can listen to
the Colorado
Public Radio interview as well. (Look for the “Testing for Racial Bias” link.)
CU Social Psychology Professor Leaf Van Boven’s research
received some popular press, with articles appearing in both the Boulder Camera and
the Denver Post. His research indicates that people are happier when they spend money
on experiential purchases such as going on a vacation versus material goods. Read the
Camera’s article online.
April 2007
CU Psychology Professors Alice Healy (Cognitive) and
Charles “Chick” Judd (Social) were named College Professors of Distinction
by the College of Arts and Sciences in recognition of their exceptional service, teaching and
research or creative work.
CU Clinical Psychology professor David Miklowitz recently published a
couple of important studies of his work regarding bipolar depression. The first study, published
in the Archives of General Psychiatry (and also the subject of a
NY Times online article),
demonstrated that people with bipolar depression are more likely to get and stay well if they receive
intensive psychotherapy in conjunction with medication (read
the online version).
The second study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that antidepressants
do not add to the efficacy of mood stabilizing medications in hastening recovery from an episode
of bipolar depression (read
the online version). This study,
involving a large number of researchers across the U.S., was the largest federally funded research
program ever conducted for bipolar disorder.
March 2007
CU Social Psychology professor Angel Bryan had some of her
exercise and mental health research mentioned in the current issue of Newsweek. Though
Angela is never mentioned by name (nor is any other researcher whose work is referred to in the
article), the University of Colorado is, and trust us, it’s her research. Read the
online version of the article.
CU Clinical Psychology professor Sona Dimidjian was awarded a Junior Faculty Development Award by CU-Boulder’s Council on Research and Creative Work (CRCW). More info upcoming.
December 2006
Graduating Senior Megan Lipsett was named the Outstanding Graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences for the Fall 2006 graduation. She graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in psychology. Her honors thesis was completed under the direction of Tim Curran. There is more information on the CU-Boulder Honors Program page.
CU Psychology Behavioral Neuroscience Professor Linda Watkins
has been named a CU system Distinguished Professor, one of the rarest University of
Colorado honors. Check out the
CU press release.
November 2006
CU Social Psychology Professor Charles “Chick” Judd received
an honorary degree, Docteur honoris causa, from the Université catholique de Louvain
in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Check out
the official announcement and
a picture from the ceremony.
CU Cognitive Psychology Professor Tim Curran was awarded a Faculty Fellowship for the 2007–08 academic year. The fellowships were created to acknowledge research excellence and allow faculty to devote a year to research projects as an alternative to sabbatical semesters. These fellowships are given to a select number of faculty members annually by the Graduate School’s Council on Research and Creative Work (CRCW).
October 2006
CU Cognitive Psychology Professor Randy O’Reilly is the sole author of an article published in Science. The article discusses how biologically based computational models can inform our understanding of high-level cognitive processes, in part by integrating the information resulting from analog vs. digital forms of computation. Read the article online.
September 2006
CU Cognitive Psychology Professor and Director of ICS, Marie Banich, has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Research Award to collaborate with researchers in Italy examining the neural architecture and time course of how people focus their attention. Read more about the research and the award in the CU press release.
Newly hired CU Social Psychology Professor Geoffrey Cohen was the lead author on an article published in Science. The research addressed how reducing the stress resulting from negative stereotypes narrowed significantly the racial achievement gap between African-Americans and nonminority students. Read the article online.
