Social psychologist Albert Bandura, PhD, has been appointed an officer to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian award for outstanding achievement and service to the nation. Bandura, honored for his contributions to social psychology, is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and is the founder of social learning theory. He was born and raised on a farm in Mundare, a small town in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Ana Mari Cauce, PhD, is the new interim president of the University of Washington. She was previously provost and executive vice president of the university, where she has worked for nearly 30 years. Cauce, who was born in Cuba, is a professor of psychology and of American ethnic studies, and also an adjunct professor in the university's department of gender, women and sexuality studies and the College of Education.
The California State University system has presented Cynthia Crawford, PhD, with the 2015 Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology award for her research and publication record in biomedical neuroscience and pharmacology. Crawford is a professor of psychology at California State University, San Bernardino, where she has taught since 1996. The award also honors her mentoring and inclusion of students in her research, which focuses primarily on drug addiction. Crawford is also associate director of the university's Minority Access to Research Careers Program.
The Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy has given Paul Frick, PhD, university distinguished professor and chair of the department of psychology at the University of New Orleans, its Robert D. Hare Lifetime Achievement Award. Frick studies the way youths develop antisocial behavior and psychopathic tendencies. Previously, he won the MacArthur Foundation's Champion for Change in Juvenile Justice Award for the state of Louisiana.
University of Houston developmental psychology professor Arturo Hernandez, PhD, has won one of this year's Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Awards, given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The $50,000 award will allow Hernandez to conduct research in Germany for a year. Hernandez, the director of the Laboratory for the Neural Bases of Bilingualism at the University of Houston, studies how the brain processes language, particularly in people who are bilingual.
Psychologist honored with Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS research
The National Institute on Drug Abuse has given Don C. Des Jarlais, PhD, a 2015 Avant-Garde Award for HIV/AIDS Research.
Des Jarlais, who is director of research for the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, will use the $500,000 per year, five-year award, to lead an HIV prevention intervention study in New York City and Tallinn, Estonia, two cities with growing numbers of heroin users. Researchers will focus on reducing the number of drug users who transition to injection drugs.
Des Jarlais began his research on HIV/AIDS in 1982 and is a leading researcher in the epidemiology of HIV transmission among injection drug users. He also led evaluations of harm reduction interventions, particularly syringe exchange programs, and helped develop syringe exchange programs in New York City during the 1980s and 1990s.
Psychologist-created series wins award
A Web series created by psychologist Luciana Lagana, PhD, received the Best Trailer Award at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles.
In the series, called "Intimate Temp Agency," Lagana plays the manager of a temp agency at which eccentric job applicants apply for unusual jobs.
"I created this Web series with the goal of encouraging people to be more accepting of creative and quirky individuals, thinking twice before putting direct or indirect pressure on them to conform and potentially lose their creative edge," Lagana said in a press release.
In addition to her acting and directing projects, Lagana is a professor of psychology, gerontology, sexuality and women's health at California State University Northridge. Her research focuses on the health of mainly non-Caucasian low-income older women, particularly physical pain and its psychosocial consequences in later life.