Psychology Undergraduate Students made an impressive showing at InnovateUNO on March 1st. With Dr. Monica Marsee as a supervisor, Maria Kireeva and Molly Miller presented their research. With Dr. Elizabeth (Birdie) Shirtcliff as a supervisor, Brandon Gaudet, Florencia Iturra, Swornim Shrestha and Miguel Velasquez presented their research, with fellow undergraduates or alumni Jenny Phan, Amanda Piglia, and Katharina Schneider as coauthors. 

Early Research Professor Elizabeth (Birdie) Shirtcliff has received an EPSCOR OPT-IN grant from the board of regents to develop a real-time testosterone device with entrepreneurs at Oasis Diagnostics in Vancouver.

Dr. Gerald LaHoste's lab have shown to delay Huntington's Disease symptoms in a trsnagenic mouse model. Research focusing on the role of the Rhes protein in Huntington's Disease has shown that diseased mice lacking in Rhes do not exhibit symptoms as early as diseased mice with greater amounts of the protein.

The Frick lab continues the winning streak with a second win for Best Costume. The theme, Cirque du Frick, was complete with a ring master, fortune tellers, acrobats and sword swallower.

Professor of psychology Dr. Carl Weems reports that watching disaster coverage of hurricanes on TV can exacerbate anxiety and PTSD symptoms. The article appears in the recent issue of psychological science.

The Excellence in Teaching Selection Committee has selected Dr. Gilda Werner Reed for the UNO International Alumni Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award. Dr. Reed will be presented with the Award at the Fall Commencement and will be honored at the Investiture Gala.

University Distinguished Professor and Department Chair, Dr. Paul Frick, will be speaking on “New Findings on Conduct Disorder for DSM-5: The role of Callous Unemotional Traits” at the Instituto D’Or Pesquisa e Ensino, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in November.

In partnership with CenterAustria, Ms. Katharina Schneider has completed a 2 month research internship in the SPIT lab in which she worked directly with human participants in several ongoing research studies, conducted biological assays, and learned advanced statistical modeling. The research experience will set the stage for Ms. Schneider’s thesis on testosterone reactivity to stress. 

Dr. Tiffany Simpson, Executive Director of the Governor's Children's Cabinet and a 2010 graduate of UNO’s doctoral program, is instrumental in implementing a system for using data to guide state public policy involving children.  The system, called “Louisiana Kids' Dashboard”  shows 16 indicators, divided among the categories Health Care, Education and Well-Being.  Each indicator shows the baseline, current and target levels, and displays trends to indicate if Louisiana is doing better, worse or the same as the baseline for that indicator. The Kids' Dashboard indicators are national measurements, similar to those tracked through the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Kaiser Family Foundation and other organizations that issue comparisons of children's well-being by states. The indicators on Louisiana Kids' Dashboard are tracked through Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Education, Department of Health and Hospitals, Louisiana Workforce Commission, and Office of Juvenile Justice.

Dürdane Kocabay and Sezin Andiç, graduate students at Ankara University in Ankara Turkey, just completed a month-long visit in the UNO Families and Teens Lab with Dr. Bobby Laird.  Dürdane and Sezin assisted with data collection and measure design for the Teen Driving Project and discussed similarities and differences between Turkey and US with students and faculty. Dürdane and Sezin also used their visit to make progress on their own research proposals and to experience some of the local culture.

University of Melbourne professor Nick Allen spoke to the UNO psychology department on Wednesday, 12:30 pm in GP 2041 on “The social neuroscience of family interactions: A window into adolescent depression”.

University of Buffalo Scientist Rebecca Houston spoke to the UNO psychology department on Thursday, 12:30 pm in GP 2041 on “Research transformations across a career in biopsychology”.

The department is delighted to announce the addition of two Assistant Professors to the team. Dr. Connie Lamm graduated with her PhD from the University of Toronto before completing a post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Nathan Fox’s lab at University of Maryland. Dr. Elliott Beaton is from Halifax, Nova Scotia, received his PhD from McMaster University and commenced a post-doctoral fellowship at UC Davis’s MIND institute.  Both will be active within the Applied Biopsychology area but have bridging interests in Applied Developmental Psychology as well. In addition to phenomenal records of research activity, these new professors are confident that their ability to handle harsh Canadian winters will help prepare them to appreciate the New Orleans sunshine.

Highlights from the 2010-2011 Annual Report shows that the Psychology Department shines in all areas, with nearly $9 million in active grants; a publication rate of 5.1 publications per year (nearly 3 times the national average for psychology), faculty instructor effectiveness ratings of 4.79 and 4.69 in the fall and spring semester (on a scale of 1-5, with 5 the best rating), and the highest graduating class in the College of Science.  

UNO psychology undergraduate sophomore Miguel Velasquez receives a SURE grant from the Board of Regents of the State of Louisiana to examine the reciprocal relation between psychophysiological patterns of stress responsivity and sleep. Mr. Velasquez will complete the research experience in Dr. Shirtcliff’s Stress Physiology in Teens (SPIT) laboratory where he has been volunteering for the past semester.

UNO psychology undergraduate students Brandon Gaudet and Katharina Schneider were selected for a paid two-week course at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium to conduct experimental research in neurobiology, electrophysiology and neuronal imaging. The LUMCON course is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Tulane Neuroscience Program and Tulane Cell and Molecular biology programs and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Brandon and Katharina are members of Dr. Shirtcliff’s Stress Physiology in Teens (SPIT) laboratory.

Dr. Paul Frick was recently featured in the New York Times and also made a big splash in a recent article in the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, the highest impact of any psychology journal. Together with Joel Nigg and drawing from his experience on the DSM-V committee, Dr. Frick explores the issues of diagnosis of attention deficit, oppositional defiant and conduct disorder with the aim of enhancing the validity and clinical utility of these disorders.

Laura Thornton has been awarded the American Psychology-Law Society Student Section Award for her Presentation in Puerto Rico on “Predictive Utility of a Specifier to the Diagnosis of Conduct Disorder based on the Presence of Callous-Unemotional Traits”. Laura is a second year graduate in Dr. Paul Frick’s laboratory.

The department of psychology celebrated spring, the end of the semester and all things Louisiana at the annual Fricken Awesome Crawfish Boil.  This year’s theme – rain or shine, UL or LSU, what does it matter as long as the boil continues? – brought out the celebration spirit amongst faculty, staff, and graduate students.

ZERO TO THREE a non-profit organization, has selected UNO Psychology Alumnus Sherryl S. Heller, Ph.D for its Leaders for the 21st Century Fellowship. The program connects, enriches, and inspires professionals dedicated to advancing the health and development of very young children. Read more about the fellowship here. 

Dr. Gilda Werner Reed was named one of the Best 300 Professors by the Princeton Review. She was selected from 42,000 faculty members across the nation and over 120 colleges and universities developed from ratemyprofessors.com. Dr. Reed has been teaching at UNO since 1994 and since that time has earned 65 ratings with an overall quality of 4.8 points. Read more about it from nola.com.

UNO Department of Psychology faculty member Dr. Robert Laird has received a $515,000 grant from the W.T. Grant foundation to study “Parenting New Teen Drivers”. Initiated by pilot funding from the Louisiana Board of Regents SCoRE grant, the project examines how a new driver in the family changes the dynamics of parent-adolescent interactions. The goal is to understand how autonomy and independence are negotiated by parents and adolescents.