Faculty Recognition

AWARDS & HONORS

Lucía Magis-Weinberg, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Director of the interACTlabwas one of the committee members who authored the American Psychological Association Health Advisory on Social Media Use in Adolescence, which published 10 recommendations to provide guidance to educators, parents, policymakers, mental health and health practitioners, technology companies and youth about how to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of online platforms. The report received the endorsement of the US Surgeon General who said “I am thankful to the APA for their leadership in issuing science-based recommendations that can provide guidance to families across the country as they navigate the use of these platforms.” The reported has been widely cited by news outlets, including NBC Chicago, CNN, ABC, NPR and The Hill. Among the 10 recommendations, the report calls for the need to train adolescents on social media literacy. Dr. Magis-Weinberg's research at UW is focused on working with schools to design and test school interventions that promote digital citizenship. Her lab's work highlights the importance of early adolescence as a prime time for promotion of healthy digital habits since youth are open to guidance from parents and teachers as they open their first social media accounts. Congratulations Lucía

Sapna Cheryan received the distinction of Honorable Mention for the 2023 UW Awards of Excellence, Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award. Sapna was recommended for enriching the graduate experience of her students. Congratulations Sapna!

Sama Ahmed received a grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. It continues at the UW as his three-year "Postdoctoral Diversity Enrichment Program Transition to Faculty Award," which started at Princeton. The science title is, "Neural mechanisms underlying locomotor modulation of complex behavior." The study combines behavioral analysis, neural imaging and neurogenetics to investigate the coordination of locomotion and acoustic signal production (courtship song) in Drosophila melanogaster.

Research Scientist, Woon Ju Park, received a K99/R00 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The current $252,784 award is for the initial two-year UW K99 phase. Ione Fine is the primary mentor. The award title is Anatomical, Neural, and Computational Constraints on Sensory Cross-modal Plasticity Following Early Blindness. The project investigates how early blindness affects auditory processing within the deprived visual cortex. K99 phase will examine: (1) refinement of the neural computations underlying auditory motion perception in blind individuals, (2) how the altered neurochemical regulations within the deprived visual cortex might alter the perception of auditory stimuli in blind individuals, and (3) the anatomical origins of cross-modal plasticity. 

Sama Ahmed received a UW Continuation of the Bridge to Independence Fellowship from Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain. The current $610,000 award is for the final, three-year phase of the project. Award title: Brain-wide Dynamics Underlying Behavioral Multitasking in Drosophila. The project combines recent advances in behavioral analysis, in vivo brain-wide neural imaging and neurogenetics, to investigate the coordination of locomotion and acoustic signal production (courtship song) in a genetically tractable model: Drosophila melanogaster.

Wendy Stone was one of the 2023 ITHS Pilot Award Recipients. Wendy will work on a project entitled “Co-Developing and Piloting Culturally-Responsive Informational Materials about Autism for Families of Young Children: Employing a Train-the-Trainer Implementation Model within a Nonprofit Setting” along with Mother Africa. For more about the ITHS awards: https://www.iths.org/news/2023-pilot-recipients/

A team of researchers including Liying Wang, Jane Simoni and Vibh Forsythe Cox from UW Psychology received a Tier 2 Grant from the UW Population Health Initiative. The grant is for a project titled "An mHealth intervention to promote adaptive coping and medication adherence among HIV-positive Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM) in China: A Feasability Pilot Studys." Tier 2 pilot grants support researchers in developing preliminary data or the proof-of-concept needed to pursue follow-on funding. 

Clara Wilkins was awarded Fellow Status in the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).

Priscilla Lui has been selected to receive the “Emerging Professional – Contributions to Service Award“ from the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race.

The Simons Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund recently awarded the Broadening the Representation of Academic Investigators in Neuroscience (BRAINS) program https://brains.uw.edu/ funds to extend its reach beyond that provided by the NINDS (at NIH). While BRAINS will continue to facilitate the career advancement of historically underrepresented early career researchers in the neurosciences, the new funds will enable BRAINS to also offer professional development for mid-career scientists and academic professionals. Congratulation to Sheri Mizumori (PI) and the entire BRAINS leadership team (Joyce Yen, Claire Horner-Devine, Erin Carll, and Rachel Talney)! 

Andy Meltzoff was elected to the National Academy of Education. This prestigious group of scholars are selected for their impact on the field of education. The NAE is the nation’s highest scientific body in education sciences, often consulted by the White House, Congress, and others. 

PUBLICATIONS

Jeansok J. Kim and Eun Joo Kim had their article, "Neurocognitive effects of stress: a metaparadigm perspective" published in Molecular Psychiatry. Their paper can be accessed here: "Neurocognitive effects of stress: a metaparadigm perspective"

Priscilla Lui and colleague Akihito Kamata (Southern Methodist University) had their paper "Harmonizing Assessments of Everyday Racial Discrimination Experiences: The Multigroup Everday Racial Discrimination Scale (MERDS)" published in Assessment. 

Milla Titova had two co-authored papers published:

1. "The Creative Breakthrough Model of Goal Reorientation: Explicit questions drive implicit processes," Kennon M. Sheldon, Ryan Goffredi, Liudmila Titova, published in the Journal of Research and Personality
2. "Social media use and well-being: testing an integrated self-determination theory model," Kennon M. Sheldon, Liudmila Titova, published in Media Psychology