Administrative Updates & Announcements
Nate Helwig has accepted the offer to join our
faculty. He will be joining us as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of
2014, splitting his time between the Department of Psychology and the
School of Statistics. Psychology will serve as his tenure home. If you
would like to contact Nate, his email address is: nhelwig2@illinois.edu.
We are thrilled at this very positive outcome! Thank you to everyone
who participated in the search and hiring process. Special thanks to
Niels Waller, Chris Federico, and Paul Sackett, who were Psychology's
representatives on the search committee.
Psychology Undergraduate Advising is pleased to welcome a new staff member for Spring Semester 2014! Rima Ali, a junior psychology honors major, will be joining our team as a Student Office Assistant. Welcome, Rima!
Available RA Database
If you are looking for an undergraduate research assistant, check out
the Available RA Database. The database contains information about
undergraduates who are interested in conducting research in the
department. You can examine students' interests, backgrounds, and
previous experience to find someone who is a good fit for your research.
The database contains only names and information collected since the
end of the Fall 2013 Semester. Contact Mark Stellmack (stell006@umn.edu) to obtain a copy of the database.
Awards & Accomplishments
Professor Paul Sackett and his collaborator
Professor Filip Lievens, of the University of Ghent, Belgium, have been
selected as the 2014 recipients of the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology's Jeanneret Award for Excellence in the Study
of Individual or Group Assessment for their paper "The validity of
interpersonal skills assessment via situational judgment tests for
predicting academic success and job performance", published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
Graduate students Jack Kostal and Brenton Wiernik, and Professor Deniz Ones,
received the Best International Paper award from the Society for
Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Their paper is entitled,
"Developing cross-cultural personality norms: Which grouping method is
appropriate?". The paper was written in collaboration with Minnesota
Ph.D. alumna Dr. Joy Hazucha.
Graduate students Jack Kostal and Brenton Wiernik
received the John C. Flanagan award for best student paper from the
Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Their paper is
entitled, "Developing cross-cultural personality norms: Which grouping
method is appropriate?" The paper was written in collaboration with
Professor Deniz Ones and Minnesota Ph.D. alumna Dr. Joy Hazucha.
Graduated
Congratulations to our December 2013 Ph.D. graduates!
Adam Beatty
Area: Industrial/Organizational
Advisor: Paul Sackett
Dissertation Title: A Critical Review of Empirical and Rational
Strategies for Item Selection and Keying for Biographical Data
Inventories.
Stephanie Cantu
Area: Social
Advisor: Jeffry Simpson & Traci Mann
Dissertation Title: When are women especially attracted to
attractive men?: Human mate preferences in a pathogen prevalent ecology.
Steven Nydick
Area: Quantitative/Psychometric Methods
Advisor: Niels Waller
Dissertation Title: Multidimensional Mastery Testing with CAT.
Grants
Congratulations to Associate Professor Yuhong Jiang
who was recently awarded funding by the National Institute of Mental
Health for her project, "Attentional guidance by implicit learning and
explicit goals."
Assistant Professor Moin Syed, faculty member in the
Counseling Area, was chosen to receive a 2014-15 Imagine Fund Annual
Award in the amount of $5,000. The Imagine Fund awards were established
to provide competitive financial support for faculty in the arts,
design, and humanities, but social scientists are also able to apply.
Congratulations to Moin on this achievement!
The Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research
recently received a 5-year renewal of their R37 grant from NIH. This
grant supports the MCTFR's longest-running longitudinal study entitled A
Twin/Family Study of Vulnerability to Substance Abuse, which began in
1987. The award is over $3.5 million which will be implemented through
the end of 2018. The award will be used expand this longitudinal study
to include both males and females who will undergo a MRI scan at the U's
CMRR, and the renewal will also be used to continue the use of
psychophysiology lab and interview protocols.
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)
provides grants of up to $1,700 for undergraduates either to work with a
faculty member on her/his scholarly or creative project or to carry out
a project of the student's own design in close collaboration with a
faculty sponsor. UROP projects are an ideal way to bring together the
University's research and teaching missions, and the program is well
funded, providing over 100 grants for CLA students every year. CLA's
UROP contact is Wendy Nicholson-Kotas (nicho421@umn.edu
or 612-624-4368), who is willing to speak with groups of faculty and/or
students about this program and can serve as a resource to answer
questions. Students submit their electronic application at www.urop.umn.edu. The due date for UROP applications for summer and fall 2014 projects is February 24, 2014.
Upcoming Events
Assistant Professor Moin Syed will present a
talk titled "The Cultural Psychology of Storytelling" at CLA's "A
Brighter U" alumni event on Saturday 2/22/14 at Coffman Memorial Union.
This year's signature alumni event will open with a lunch buffet and
three of CLA's superstar faculty in a panel discussion on human rights.
Guests will then attend two small group sessions, selecting from an
array of intriguing topics. Professor Syed will discuss how we explore
the form and content of the stories that people tell about their lives,
and how these culturally grounded stories are indicative of the
psychologies of the individuals, groups, and societies who produce them.
Register online by Friday 2/14/14.
This year's Welcome Weekend will be February
27th - March 1st, 2014. We are excited to be inviting 45 students to
visit our campus. Our visiting students will be hosted by current Ph.D.
students and faculty. This is a great opportunity for visiting students
to experience what it's like to live in Minnesota, and get to know all
that the Department of Psychology and Twin Cities have to offer. Our
visitors will spend all of Friday, February 28th on campus visiting
faculty, students and labs. In the evening, students will take the
visitors out on the town for dinner.
