Overview of Focus on Science:
Focus on Science, the
three-day compressed science programming, will be held Friday through Sunday, August 4-6, at this year's 108th APA Annual Convention in Washington, DC.
These three days will be packed with scientific presentations and other events of interest to psychological scientists. Focus on Science sponsors and participants include the
Board of Scientific Affairs and APA Divisions 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 21, 25, and 28.
The success of last year's inaugural plenary session demanded an encore in 2000. This year we are excited to have Francis Collins, MD, Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) as the plenary speaker for Focus on Science. Collins will speak on the "Medical and Societal Consequences of the Human Genome Project." His talk is scheduled for Saturday August 5, at 11:00am. Other speakers who will present at Focus on Science include Master Lectures by Martha Farah, Paul Gold, Alan Kazdin, Richard Lerner, and Richard Nisbett, and the Neal Miller Lecture by Linda Bartoshuk.
Among the other not-to-be-missed features of Focus on Science
are:
- MEGA poster sessions. Four 3-hour sessions
organized thematically (e.g., psychology in the workplace, gender, psychopharmacology and substance abuse) taking place on Friday and Saturday will showcase a variety a posters from 14 different themes.
- "Frontiers of Psychological Science," programming in which new areas of research will be explored. The "Frontiers..." sessions will include exciting symposia on the interface of genetics research with psychological research, and the applications of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods in behavioral research.
- "The Academic Career: A Beginner's Manual,"
a day-long workshop scheduled for Saturday on how to keep and advance in an academic job -
designed for academics in the first 3 years of their careers
- The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) has coordinated a number of special sessions, including presentations by NIDA Director Alan Leshner, Marilyn Carroll, and Jose Szapocznik.
Please visit the NIDA website for more information on their special programming.
- Programming arranged especially for science-oriented
graduate and undergraduate students, including sessions on influencing public policy
and a discussion of non-academic careers in the psychological sciences
- Joint social hour on Friday for all science
division participants
Other Convention sessions of scientific interest include the NIMH Special
Programming on Emerging Issues in Child Psychopathology. National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Director Steve Hyman, Maria Kovacs, and Scott
Henggeler are just a few of the distinguished speakers, and the scope of
presentations includes perspectives on youth violence, prevention, early intervention, empirically-supported treatments, ADHD in primary care, and child/adolescent depression. In addition to these lectures, NIMH will sponsor a breakfast for junior investigators on funding opportunities.
For more information, view the
complete NIMH Schedule of Events on the NIMH web site.
If you would like to receive a copy of the Focus on Science
program book (available in mid July), please contact the Science Directorate at
202-336-6000 or at science@apa.org.
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