End Violence Against Women International is presenting its 2016 Visionary Award to Rebecca Campbell, PhD, of Michigan State University, for her research on sexual violence. In particular, she is exploring how the legal, medical and mental health communities respond to sexual assault victims. Campbell was also honored by the U.S. Justice Department in April for her role in effecting rape kit testing reform in Detroit.
Dedre Gentner, PhD has won the $100,000 David E. Rumelhart Prize, awarded by the Robert J. Glushko and Pamela Samuelson Foundation to honor contributions to the theoretical foundations of human cognition. Gentner, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, is known for developing Structure-Mapping Theory. It holds that humans, unlike most other species, can notice common relations across situations even when the concrete objects involved in the situations are different. The theory has broad implications in learning and reasoning, including science and mathematics, children's language learning and other situations.
The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer awarded Hildreth Grossman, PhD, an advocacy travel award to attend the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer in September in Denver. Grossman, a clinical psychologist in Brookline, Massachusetts, is a lung cancer survivor and founder and president of the advocacy group Upstage Lung Canceropens in new window.
The American Board of Professional Psychology has given Jarrod M. Leffler, PhD, its Early Career Psychology Service Award for his contributions to professional psychology through program development and implementation, service delivery, teaching, research and active participation in psychology through professional boards and organizations. Leffler is on faculty at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he is assistant professor of psychology, director of the Child and Adolescent Integrated Mood Program and co-director of the Pediatric Mood Clinic.
The Society for Text and Discourse has presented its Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award to psychologists Jerome L. Myers, PhD, of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Edward J. O'Brien, PhD, of the University of New Hampshire. The honor recognizes their 30 years of research on how people comprehend text as they read, in particular their development of the Resonance Model of memory-based text processing that has provided the foundation for most modern models of reading.
The Society of Experimental Psychologists gave Stephen Grossberg, PhD, a professor of cognitive and neural systems at Boston University, its 2015 Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award. Grossberg is a pioneer and leader of theoretical research on how brains give rise to minds and how technology can emulate biological intelligence. His work has been integral to the fields of computational neuroscience, connectionist cognitive science and neuromorphic technology.
Psychology professors Stephen Maisto, PhD, of Syracuse University, Tibor Palfai, PhD, of Boston University and Jeffrey Simons, PhD, of the University of South Dakota won a five-year, $2.1 million award from the National Institutes of Health to study cognitive and contextual influences on decision-making. The team will study the effects of alcohol consumption, cognitive factors and personal characteristics such as mpulsivity on decision making among HIV-negative men who have sex with other men.
The Czech Academy of Sciences has awarded Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD, its Honorary Medal "De Scientifa et Humanitate Optime Meritis," recognizing Zimbardo's vast contributions to science and the humanities. A professor emeritus at Stanford University, Zimbardo has spent 50 years teaching and studying psychology.
"Autism in Love"strives to dispel stereotypes
Ira Heilveil, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, is executive producer of "Autism in Love," a new documentary film that explores romantic love in adults with autism.
He says he was interested in doing the film because many people — including psychologists — were trained to believe that people with autism are incapable of entering into loving, mutually satisfying relationships. But in a research project he conducted of adults diagnosed with autism, many reported having had loving, romantic relationships.
"This felt like an important story to tell," Heilveil says. "The landscape of autism is broad, and so is the landscape of romantic relationships, and I wondered what those of us who might be referred to as neurotypical might learn from those whose struggles may be more difficult."
The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April, and won an award for best documentary at the Mammoth Lakes Film Festival in May. PBS will begin airing the movie in January. For more information, see Autism in Loveopens in new window.
