Sarah Banks, a fifth-year graduate student at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and James Cobb Scott, a fourth-year graduate student at San Diego State University and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have won the American Psychological Foundation (APF) 2006 Benton-Meier Neuropsychology Scholarships. The scholarships provide each winner with $2,500 in support of their research programs.

Banks received her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Before starting graduate school, she studied traumatic brain injury, epilepsy and movement disorders in assistantships at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford and Astley Ainslie Hospital in Edinburgh. Banks then went on to conduct graduate studies in the United States with her mentor, Sandra Weintraub, PhD, a psychology professor at Northwestern University in Chicago.

The Benton-Meier scholarship will support Bank’s research on disease awareness in dementia patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration, she says.

Cobb Scott received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Wesleyan University, in Connecticut. He has since held research associate positions at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and UCSD’s anesthesia department. With his mentor, Thomas Marcotte, PhD, Cobb Scott is researching the neuropsychological aspects of HIV infection and substance use at UCSD’s HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center.

APF will award two $2,500 Benton-Meier scholarships in 2007. Applicants should submit a letter, co-signed by their faculty mentor or director of training, detailing research accomplishments, a budget for the proposed course of study and the proposed use of the scholarship funds. Applications can be submitted online at http://forms.apa.org/apf/grants. The deadline is June 1.

For more information, visit www.apa.org/apf.

Submit high school programming proposals

APF seeks proposals for programs that support the science and application of psychological science among high school students. Up to $30,000 is available for projects that:

• Reinforce psychology as a science in secondary school curricula.

• Expand psychology’s profile as a science to attract talented high school students to the discipline.

• Convey psychology as a tool to improve society.

• Teach students about career options that apply psychology outside of an academic setting.

Applicants must be affiliated with an educational institution or nonprofit organization. APF will give preference to proposals focused on supporting the education of talented high school students. For application requirements, visit www.apa.org/apf/highschool.html. The deadline is May 1.

Apply for violence-prevention funding

In 2007, APF will award up to $20,000 for innovative community programming aimed at preventing and reducing violence in society. Proposals from non-PhD holders and non-psychologists will be accepted provided their proposals:

• Encourage the transfer of psychological science with regard to violence, violence prevention and programmatic interventions within the community.

• Support the implementation of innovative community programs aimed at preventing violence in a number of social settings such as young adult populations, the elderly, domestic partnerships and others.

• Provide seed money to community-based organizations or funding to established community programs.

Applicants must be engaged in research-based program implementation. APF will give special consideration to programs that show promise for broad-based community support. For application information, visit www.apa.org/apf/violence.html. The deadline is June 1.

Nominate a clinical health psychologist

APF and APA’s Div. 38 (Health) are accepting nominations for the $1,000 Timothy Jeffrey Memorial Award, which recognizes an outstanding commitment to clinical health psychology by a full-time provider of direct clinical services. Louise Jeffrey, PhD, established the award in 1999 to honor her late husband.

Nominees should spend a minimum of 15 to 20 hours a week in direct, face-to-face patient care, in assessment or therapy, in individual or group settings and must be a fully licensed clinical health psychologist and member of APA and Div. 38. Self-nominations are welcome.

For application requirements, visit www.apa.org/apf/jeffrey.html. The deadline is May 1.

Contribution honors David Myers

In December, Charles L. Brewer, PhD, made a $10,000 contribution to APF in honor of David G. Myers, PhD.

Myers is a social psychologist and professor at Hope College in Holland, Mich. He is an award-winning researcher, teacher and communicator of psychological science to college students and the general public. Myers has authored 15 books including two popular psychology textbooks, “Psychology” and “Exploring Psychology,” and several general-audience books.

“Having worked with Dave Myers for many years, I appreciate his incalculable influence on countless students and teachers of psychology,” says Brewer. “My contribution to APF honors his exemplary work and expresses admiration for him as a teacher, scholar and friend.”

The esteem is mutual. Myers dedicated the seventh edition of “Exploring Psychology,” published in late February, to Brewer.

“Charles has been enormously helpful and encouraging to me, as to so many others,” noted Myers. “He has been an incredibly discerning and dedicated contributor to the teaching of psychology.”

Brewer is a member of APF’s board of trustees and advancement committee. In 1967, he joined the faculty at Furman University, where he remains today. He was former president of APA Divs. 1 (Society for General Psychology), 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology) and the Council of Undergraduate Psychology Departments. Charles and his wife, Marjorie, a master pianist and teacher, have contributed more than $125,000 to APF in the last six years.

$16,000 available for graduate scholarships

In 2007, APF will provide up to $16,000 for graduate research scholarships, which will include 11 $1,000 awards, a $3,000 Ruth G. and Joseph D. Matarazzo Scholarship, and a $2,000 Clarence Rosecrans Scholarship.

Each psychology department that is a member in good standing of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology may nominate up to three candidates. Each nomination should include five copies of the application, a letter of recommendation from a graduate research advisor, transcript, curriculum vitae and a brief outline of the nominee’s thesis or dissertation research project. The deadline is June 15.

This program is administered by the APA Science Directorate. For more information, call (202) 336-6000 or visit www.apa.org/apf/cogdop.html.

Apply for stigma and mental illness research funding

APF seeks proposals for the 2007 Violet and Cyril Franks Scholarship for graduate-level scholarly projects that use a psychological perspective to understand and reduce stigma associated with mental illness.

Applicants for the $5,000 award must be graduate psychology students enrolled full time and in good standing at an accredited university. Proposals should answer the following five questions in five pages or less:

• What is the project’s goal?

• What prior research in the area has been conducted?

• Who will this project serve?

• What are the intended outcomes and how will the project achieve them?

• What is the total project cost?

Proposals, a letter of recommendation from a faculty advisor, and a curriculum vitae can be submitted online at http://forms.apa.org/apf/ grants. The deadline is May 15. For more information, contact APF Program Officer Idalia Ramos at e-mail or (202) 336-5814.

This scholarship is made possible by the generosity of Cyril Franks, PhD, and Violet Franks, PhD. Cyril Franks is a distinguished professor emeritus of the psychology graduate school of Rutgers University and cofounder of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy. Violet Franks has been a psychologist in private practice since 1960, and in the past she served as consultant and director of the psychology department of the Carrier Clinic in Belle Mead, N.J.

—Compiled By A. Danberg, E. Merck and E. Packard