Faculty Accomplishments
Our talented faculty continue to earn accolades and awards for their innovative, cutting-edge research. We are proud to share a selection of recent faculty accomplishments with you.
Sama Ahmed, who will join UW Psychology as an Assistant Professor in autumn 2022, was named a Bridge to Independence (BTI) fellow by the Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain. The SCGB’s BTI Award program supports talented early-career scientists in systems and computational neuroscience as they transition to research independence by providing grant funding at the start of their professorships.
Sapna Cheryan received the Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). The Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize recognizes the author of an article or book chapter judged to provide the most innovative theoretical contribution to social/personality psychology within a given year.
Angela Fang was awarded a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Grant in the category of Next Generation Therapies for her research aimed at advancing novel therapeutic strategies for patients with anxiety disorders by leveraging pharmacology to target social learning processes.
Ione Fine and Geoffrey Boynton received a five-year, $1,880,561 award from the NIH National Eye Institute, for their research titled: Learning to see again: biological constraints on cortical plasticity and the implications for sight restoration technologies. This project will involve normally sighted participants, viewing distorted visual input, as ‘virtual patients’ to learn which spatiotemporal distortions can be compensated for by plasticity, and which must be compensated for in device design.
Tony Greenwald, Psychology Professor Emeritus, received the 2022 APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award. This award honors APS members for their lifetime of significant intellectual achievements in applied psychological research and their impact on a critical problem in society at large
Tyler Jimenez received the SAGE Emerging Scholar Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). This award recognizes outstanding achievements by early career PhD scholars in social and personality psychology, including contributions to teaching, research, or service to the field.
Cheryl Kaiser and Sapna Cheryan were among twenty UW scientists and engineers elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences for 2021: Sapna Cheryan, “for contributions in research on racial and gender inequality that has influenced practices in education, government, and business” and “for shifting the explanation for inequality away from individual deficiencies and examining how societal stereotypes and structures cause inequalities.” Cheryl Kaiser “for contributions demonstrating how psychological science can inform long-standing issues about racial and gender discrimination” and “for research that has deep and penetrating implications for the law and societal efforts to remedy social inequities with evidence-based programs and actions.”
Cynthia Levine was awarded a Royalty Research Fund grant for her project titled: A Sense of Belonging and Sleep among First-Generation College Students.
Scott Murray received a Collaboration Innovation Award for a project titled Neural Suppression and Facilitation in Human Epileptic Networks.
Jane Simoni received a 4-year award from the NIH P30 program, "Centers Program for Research on HIV/AIDS and Mental Health." It is expected to total almost $3M. The award title is: University of Washington Developmental AIDS Research Center for Mental Health. This award will allow her to establish a University of Washington Developmental AIDS Research Center (D-ARC). The Center will include colleagues in Psychology, Psychiatry, Global Health, Biostatistics, Social Work, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Fred Hutchinson CRC. They will focus on integrating and improving care for mental disorders into HIV prevention and treatment strategies.
Joseph Sisneros received a $25,000 award from the National Science Foundation. The Award is for the Sixth International Conference of the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life. This conference, of which Dr. Sisneros is a co-organizer, will be held in Berlin, Germany, in July 2022. Also, Dr. Sisneros, in conjunction with graduate student Loranzie Rogers, received a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam fellowship. “The Gilliam program seeks to increase the diversity of scientists at the college and university faculty level by supporting students who will become scientific leaders.” Fellowship funds will be devoted, in part, to connecting underrepresented (URM) students with URM postdoctoral and faculty individuals who exemplify academic success in psychology and related sciences.
Ariel Starr received a two-year, $10,000 award from the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE), for her work titled: The Origins and Development of the Mental Timeline. This project uses implicit looking time and pupillometry measures to explore the origins and developmental trajectory of space-time associations beginning in the first few days after birth and extending into adulthood. There is a project partnership with the University of Paris.
Z Yan Wang, who will join UW Psychology and UW Biology as an Assistant Professor in Autumn 2022, has just been named an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader. This follows her selection by the National Postdoctoral Association as an IMPACT Fellow.