News

Dr. Katharine Graf Estes, Associate Professor of Psychology, received a 2021 Teaching Award from the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. This award aims to recognize outstanding teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level, inside and outside the classroom, including activities such as running laboratories, guiding research, professionalization, and assistance with the job market.

Dr. Priscilla San Souci, Lecturer in the Department of Psychology, received a 2021 Distinguished Teaching Award from the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. This award aims to recognize outstanding teaching performance. Dr.

Professor Karen Bales was recently awarded the "Exemplar Award" from the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior (CISAB) at Indiana University. This award "recognizes the careers of scientists who set outstanding examples of integrating different perspectives in the study of Animal Behavior." She was invited to give the Exemplar Award/Plenary talk at the Center's annual conference on Animal Behavior.

Professor Karen Bales (Psychology Department and California National Primate Research Center) received notice of award for a new, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, titled "Kappa opioid and oxytocin interactions in social buffering and separation". The project will examine the neurobiology of social buffering and separation in titi monkeys (Plecturocebus cupreus), a socially monogamous species that represents an ideal animal model for studying these phenomena.

Professor Richard Robins received a $384,408 Administrative Supplement from NIH (National Institute on Aging) for a project titled "Psychosocial Stress and Adaptation to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Latinx Population". In collaboration with Co-Principal Investigator Dr.

Dr. Gail Goodman received the prestigious Academic Senate Faculty Distinguished Research Award for her outstanding research program. Dr. Goodman’s studies on children’s maltreatment and trauma, their experiences as witnesses in legal cases, and on theoretical and applied issues of memory development have been of enormous practical benefit to child victims and mental health or legal professionals who assess, treat, and protect child victims.

Associate Professor Eliza Bliss-Moreau was selected to be a 2020-2021 Chancellor’s Fellow. The Chancellor’s Fellows Program honors outstanding faculty members early in their careers. The program provides Dr. Bliss-Moreau a one-time award of $25,000 in support of her research, teaching, and service activities.

Dr. Bliss-Moreau conducts cutting-edge comparative and translational affective science using multimethod, multispecies, multilevel approaches to understand the social and affective lives of humans and nonhuman animals.

Charan Ranganath has been elected a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists. The society - founded by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1904 - is the oldest and most prestigious honorary society in Psychology. Congratulations, Charan!

The James S. McDonnell Foundation has announced the winners of the Inaugural Opportunity Awards for Understanding Cognition. This year only 10 awards were made worldwide, with two separate awards being made to UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain faculty members: Joy Geng (w/ co-PI Simona Ghetti) and Lisa Oakes (w/ co-PI Katie Graf Estes).

This honor is awarded to "APS members who have made sustained outstanding contributions to the science of psychology in the areas of research, teaching, service, and/or application. Fellow status is typically awarded for one’s scientific contributions, but may also be awarded for exceptional contributions to the field through the development of research opportunities and settings."