PEOPLE

Psychologist Lawrence Balter, PhD, was named 'Professor of the Year' by New York University?s School of Education. Balter has been a professor in the school psychology doctoral programs for more than 20 years. The student-initiated award is bestowed annually to a professor with outstanding teaching abilities and a commitment to mentoring students.

Balter, who teaches developmental psychology and personality assessment in children, is also director of the Warm Line for Parents, a free telephone counseling service for parents that serves as a teaching device and a community service. Parents call the line and leave questions or concerns about parenting with an answering service. A doctoral student contacts the caller, conducts an in-depth interview and reports to Balter. After supervision with Balter, the student calls the parent to offer advice and discuss the problem.

Balter writes a monthly column for the magazine Sesame Street Parents and is a contributing editor to Family Circle magazine. He has written a series of educational children?s books on topics such as understanding jealousy and adjusting to a parent?s remarriage, and he is a weekly psychology feature reporter for television station WCBS in New York City. Balter also runs a private practice in Manhattan.

Psychologist Florence Denmark, PhD, a pioneer in the psychology of women, received an honorary doctorate from Allegheny University at its commencement in May.

Denmark, a distinguished psychology professor and chair of the psychology department at Pace University, was honored for her groundbreaking research on women, sex and gender bias, leadership and sexual harassment. She has been a leader in helping establish the psychology of women as a legitimate scholarly field.

Denmark received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She has won innumerable awards from professional organizations, including APA?s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest in 1993. She is recognized in the book, 'Models Of Achievement: Reflections Of Eminent Women In Psychology' (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., 1988) and has spoken about her research at universities and meetings all over the world.

In 1980, Denmark was APA?s fifth woman president.

Psychologist Seymour Wapner, PhD, and Clark University graduate Robert Leeman are the second recipients of an award bestowed by Clark University that celebrates the relationship between psychology students and their instructors.

Established two years ago by Clark alumnus Lee Gurel, PhD, the Lee Gurel/John E. Bell Student/Faculty Achievement Award honors an outstanding graduating psychology student who has been accepted to a psychology graduate program and a faculty mentor selected by the winning student. The instructor and the student receive a $1,000 prize each.

'It?s a unique award because the student is in the driver?s seat in selecting the professor for part of the award,' says Gurel, a retired psychologist in Arlington, Va.

Gurel founded the award to honor the profound impact that teachers can have on their students.

'Teachers are too often grossly underappreciated in this world,' he says. 'I wanted to recognize more than just student achievement. I wanted to recognize the special interaction between students and mentors.'

Leeman, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and winner of the psychology department?s research award, will begin a doctoral program in psychology at Brandeis University this fall. Wapner, professor emeritus of psychology at Clark, advised Leeman on his senior research. Wapner is chair of the executive committee of the Heinz Werner Institute for Developmental Analysis at Clark and has taught at the university for 50 years.

Wapner says he?s honored to be selected and says the award is a symbolic tribute to the powerful student-teacher relationship that is fostered at Clark. 'I think of student and teacher as a strong unit,' he says. 'Students and teachers help each other grow and teach each other; it?s really a two-way street.'

The award commemorates John E. Bell, PhD, who as a Clark psychology professor influenced Gurel?s decision to become a psychologist. Bell is known primarily as a pioneer in family therapy. In 1948 he wrote 'Projective Techniques,' e first comprehensive survey of the use of projective techniques in personality assessment.

Psychologist Neil Weinstein, PhD, will take a seat in the War Room at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research three times this year to tackle complex health issues such as who should receive anthrax vaccinations.

Weinstein is the first behavioral scientist to serve as a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board (AFEB), which advises the armed forces on all types of health issues. Weinstein, a professor in the departments of psychology and human ecology at Rutgers University for more than 24 years, is serving a three-year term on the board.

The board was established in 1940 to provide medical and scientific advice to the Department of the Army. In 1953 it became a joint agency for the three military departments. The board meets three times a year to investigate and make recommendations concerning serious health problems among the armed forces and their families. The AFEB?s accomplishments have benefited the health of the general public as well as the military: The group, for example, played a key role in developing the flu vaccine, treating and preventing pneumonia and hepatitis, and proving that seat belts in automobiles prevent serious injury.

The 15 to 20 board members are usually physicians, but this year the board added Weinstein and an economist. Jack Gwaltney, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia Medical School and an AFEB member, helped bring Weinstein to the board. He was impressed with Weinstein?s research on health behavior and recognized the need to add a behavioral scientist to the group. 'So many of the medical issues we discuss relate to behavioral science,' he says. 'Neil?s doing a terrific job, and we hope to continue to have a behavioral scientist on the board.'

Weinstein is focusing on alcohol-abuse prevention. He has spearheaded an investigation of alcohol misuse in the military and discovered that many of the armed services? substance-abuse prevention programs are not working. One problem he has identified, for example, is that the armed forces treat various forms of substance abuse?with substances such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs?as separate problems when these behaviors often occur together, with many of the same causes and treatment issues.

His committee drafted recommendations to reduce alcohol abuse, which call for better communication between the programs, evaluating the effectiveness of individual programs instead of looking at overall effectiveness only, and selling alcohol on military bases at the local community rate instead of a reduced military price.

Weinstein earned his PhD at Harvard University in chemical physics, then changed fields and did a postdoctoral fellowship in psychology at the University of California?Berkeley sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. 'I discovered that I was more interested in people than molecules,' he says.

?Jamie Chamberlin

In memoriam

Psychologist and author Charles N. Cofer, PhD, 81, died March 14 in his home in Albuquerque, N.M. Cofer, a professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, was an APA member for more than 50 years. He earned his PhD from Brown University and taught at nine universities, including George Washington University, the University of Maryland?College Park and New York University. He became professor emeritus at Pennsylvania State University in 1977. He served as a visiting professor at the University of California?Berkeley and held subsequent research professorships at Duke University, the University of Houston and the University of New Mexico.

Cofer served as president of the Maryland Psychological Association in 1955 and of the Eastern Psychological Association in 1963. He served as APA?s Chief Editorial Adviser from 1979 through 1982 and was editor of Psychological Review from 1965 through 1970.

Cofer wrote more than 125 articles and books, primarily in the areas of motivation, emotion and memory. He co-authored 'Motivation: Theory and Research' (John Wiley, 1964), which is considered a classic graduate psychology text.

A memorial program in his honor will be held at APA?s Annual Convention in San Francisco, on Saturday, Aug. 15, 6?7:50 p.m. in the San Francisco Marriott Hotel, Yerba Buena Salon 6.