News

Brian Lickel promoted to Professor!

July 19, 2017

Brian Lickel will be promoted to Professor on September 1st! Congratulations!

Lickel's research focuses on how people interpret events in intergroup conflicts and how these interpretations affect their emotions, self-concepts, and support for different social and political policies. A key assumption in his work is that understanding people’s emotions is important for unlocking the processes that amplify or reduce intergroup conflict. 

Adam Grabell receives Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award from NIH

July 7, 2017

Adam Grabell, Assistant Professor, starting Fall 2017 in the UMass Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences has received an NIH K23 Award! This Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award will train Grabell to probe deliberate regulation in preschoolers ranging from low to severe irritability, over a period of rapid development, and connect findings to translational implications.

Bernhard Leidner receives tenure!

July 6, 2017

Bernhard Leidner has been promoted to Associate Professor, receiving tenure within the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program. Leidner's research focuses on processes of social identification and intergroup relations, primarily in the context of large social categories such as nations and ethnic groups. Specifically, his research is at the cross-road of the social psychological areas of norms and morality (e.g., moral disengagement in response to in-group wrongdoings), intergroup threat (e.g., threat-induced shifting of moral principles such as fairness or loyalty), and social justice (e.g., reparations after in-group wrongdoings; conflict resolution).

Nilanjana Dasgupta receives UMass Public Service Endowment Grant to work with Girls Inc. of Holyoke

June 29, 2017

​Nilanjana Dasgupta’s new project with Girls Inc. of Holyoke will study whether participation in a summer program has the potential to boost young female student engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Students will have the opportunity to Interact with positive role models while developing potential interests in STEM fields. Girls Inc. offers after school and summer programs focused on literacy and academic success, STEM, leadership and critical thinking, as well as health, wellness, and sexuality.

Danielle O’Connor Dean ’10 Receives Distinguished Alumni Award

May 17, 2017

Danielle O’Connor Dean '10 was one of six recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award this year. She was presented the award by UMass Amherst Alumni Association President Michaella Morzuch at the Great Hall of the Massachusetts State House on April 24. Also in attendance was UMass President Marty Meehan, Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy, and Dean of Natural Sciences Steve Goodwin.

Maureen Perry-Jenkins Receives the UMass Life Science Moment Fund Award!

May 31, 2017

Maureen Perry-Jenkins, PhD, Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Director of Center for Research on Families, UMass Amherst and Nancy Byatt, DO, MS, MBA, Associate Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry and Obstetrics and Gynecology, UMass Medical School have been awarded the UMass Life Science Moment Fund Award! This fund supports inter-campus projects based in clinical and translational research. Projects are envisioned to produce meaningful health outcomes while strengthening faculty-to-faculty networks within the University.

Elizabeth Jakob Oversees Two-Day Workshop for Teaching Fellows

May 24, 2017

The College of Natural Sciences and the College of Engineering recently held the third annual two-day, spring training workshop for 26 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers accepted into the Teaching Fellows program. The training is overseen in part by Elizabeth Jakob, Behavioral Neuroscientist in Psychological and Brain Sciences and associate dean of the graduate school. The Teaching Fellows program gives participants valuable teaching experience while receiving guidance from faculty mentors. 

Alice Coyne Receives the Second Annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award

May 23, 2017

Alice CoyneAlice Coyne, a fourth-year student in the Clinical Psychology Program working with Dr. Michael Constantino, was awarded the second annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award. Awards from the endowment support graduate research expenses including equipment purchases, data collection, professional travel, or summer stipends. Data from Alice's project, Explaining the “Therapist Effect:” Determinants of Between-Therapist Differences in Alliance Quality and the Alliance-Outcome Association, will be used to develop an empirically-supported therapist training manual. Such work is likely to reflect an improvement on current training practices, as there is currently no evidence that therapist effectiveness improves with experience or following traditional “top-down” theoretical trainings.

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