Psychologist takes helm of new NSF program

Developmental psychologist Diane Scott-Jones, PhD, is the inaugural director of a new program in child learning and development at the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The program is an effort by NSF?s Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) to expand its child research portfolio in response to a call from the White House for more research on child development. In August, Scott-Jones took a leave of absence from her job as psychology professor at Temple University to start planning and implementing the program.

The President?s fiscal year (FY) 1999 budget earmarked nearly $9 million for the new program, which is still awaiting final approval from NSF?s governing body, the National Science Board. (At press time, the House and Senate had approved their own versions of NSF?s FY 1999 budget, providing slightly less than the president?s overall request for the agency. The two legislative bodies are expected to hash out the final NSF budget some time this month.)

The program will concentrate on the 'broad area of child learning and development with an emphasis on children?s learning in both formal and informal settings,' says SBE deputy division director Hilleary Everist, PhD.

It will not supplant already existing programs within SBE that fund child development research. Instead, it will complement those programs by emphasizing how children use perception and cognition to learn rather than focussing on pure perception and cognition, says Everist. Researchers interested in applying for grants should watch NSF?s World Wide Web page; final details and program announcements are under development.

Scott-Jones is well suited for the job, says Everist. She?s a child development researcher with interests in social development, family processes, and the development of African-Americans and other ethnic groups. In particular, she?s interested in the role of families in children?s successful development, including school performance.

She is editor of the Journal of Research on Adolescence and serves as a member of President Clinton?s National Bioethics Advisory Commission and the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Pathways through Middle Childhood.

?B. Azar