Chair's Message

A letter from the Chair

Sheri J. Y. Mizumori, Chair

Welcome to the 2009 edition of the University of Washington Department of Psychology Newsletter. As the new Chair of the Department of Psychology, I am very excited to be able to use this venue to keep you up-to-date in terms of our department’s activities and events, accomplishments and visions.

My recent appointment is a special honor, not only because of the privilege of leading this world-class department into a new and exciting era, but because I have been given this opportunity as an alumnus of this department. The wonderful courses and research opportunities I experienced as an undergraduate student set up a career path that has been nothing short of exciting and fulfilling. After leaving the UW, I received my Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, spent some time as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and then served on the faculty in the Psychology Department at the University of Utah.

In the time since I left the UW in 1979 and my return in 2000, the UW Department of Psychology underwent major changes in personnel. However, the core value of providing the best academic training for its undergraduate and graduate students remains, as does the core value of facilitating state-of-the-art scientific inquiry into social, psychological, and biological mechanisms that underlie our behavior.

Current research areas include adult and child psychopathology and behavioral disorders, child development, social context and prejudice, implicit and explicit cognition, sensory and perceptual processes, and learning, memory, language and communication. These research areas are viewed from clinical, evolutionary, neuroscience, experimental and quantitative perspectives.

This impressive range of research interests, together with the addition of new technological facilities in our department, provide an interdisciplinary foundation and strong support that enables research programs to make innovative and new groundbreaking discoveries. Thus, despite the current economic challenges, we hope to move quickly to position ourselves to become a preeminent and integrative Psychology Department that addresses contemporary instructional, research, clinical and societal issues.

Future issues will keep you informed as to our progress. Your feedback and ideas regarding future issues are always welcome.