Psychwatch 2012
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psychwatch The newsletter of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University 2012 2 0 0 8 New Faculty Profiles: Edith Chen and Gregory Miller ABOut PsYChWAtCh PsychWatch is a newsletter for alum- ni, faculty, and friends of the Depart- ment of Psychology at northwestern university. the graphics in the mast- head of the newsletter are details from the lights in the swift hall entry, a distinctive architectural feature of our historic building. Your comments are always welcome. Please contact us either by mail, at PsychWatch, De- partment of Psychology, northwest- ern university, 2029 sheridan Road, evanston, IL 60208; or e-mail at: [email protected]. Chair: Dan McAdams edith & Greg with their son, Jonah (age 6) editors: Katie Meyer & Ben Gorvine Design: Robert Grillo Creative, Inc. he Psychology Department is excited to medical problems. Professor Chen focuses on Printer: elk Grove Graphics Inc. welcome two new professors, Edith Chen childhood health problems such as asthma, and T and Greg Miller, to our department this year. also does work on understanding the neighbor- Professor Chen and Miller are a husband-and-wife hood, family, and individual psychological factors team coming to Northwestern from the University that contribute to health disparities. of British Columbia. Both are health psycholo- Professor Miller has always been interested in In thIs Issue gists who will have joint appointments with the health psychology, but Professor Chen had a more Psychology Department and the Institute for Policy varied academic path. She received her bachelor’s new Faculty Profiles: Research. They will be the first health psychologists in the history of science from Harvard University, edith Chen & Gregory Miller ......................1,3 to join the faculty, and the department is thrilled and then decided to switch to psychology for her A note From the Chair: .................................2 to be able to expand into this important area of doctorate at University of California, Los Angeles. psychology. She started out studying anxiety disorders, but Distinguished Faculty Profile: The research of Professor Chen and Miller over time her interests shifted toward health psy- satoru suzuki .................................................3 relate to how socioeconomic status, poverty, and chology as a function of the people she met and early life conditions affect physical health later in with whom she collaborated. One of these people Distinguished Alumna Profile: life. They study the psychological and biological was Greg Miller; the two met in graduate school at Marilyn Brewer...............................................4 pathways that can explain the relationship as well UCLA and first bonded over their shared academic Distinguished staff Profile: as the protective factors that can buffer people interests. tomeka Bolar ..................................................5 from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. While When asked how they balance their profes- they do a lot of overlapping research, they also sional and personal lives, the husband-and-wife Degree Recipients .....................................6-7 have independent specialties. Professor Miller fo- pair said simply, “We do our best work together.” cuses specifically on the effects of stress. He studies They are excited to have the opportunity to work Awards .............................................................8 how stress plays out in the body biologically, and together in their new jobs, and they will be starting Alumni news ....................................................9 how stressors that occur during early life can get a joint research lab in the fall. They feel grateful to biologically embedded and impact people’s risk for have found a place for both of them at Northwest- Psychology Faculty ...................................10-11 continued on page 3 Alumni Questionnaire ..................................12 psychwatch The newsletter of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University A Note from the Chair by Dan P. McAdams reetings from Northwestern! The most important thing that faculty In my remarks to the graduating members in the Psychology Department do is to Gseniors and their parents this past June, teach and train the wonderful students we are I focused on a few stories about the undergradu- honored to know here. ates in the Psychology Department. Let me Beyond teaching and training, our faculty begin my annual report to you along the same chalked up a large number of impressive accom- lines: plishments on the fronts of scientific research Ganesh Thippeswamy worked this past and professional development. These are listed year with Professor Ben Gorvine on a proj- in other places in our newsletter, but let me ect that aims to provide guidance for at-risk recognize a few of the most noteworthy here. students attending an alternative high school in Along with Sir Paul McCartney and a handful Chicago. Ganesh co-facilitated a young men’s of other luminaries, Professor Alice Eagly was group at the school, leading discussions on inducted into the American Academy of Arts centuries, and that today we may be living in the masculinity, parenting, and personal develop- and Sciences this past year. Sandy Waxman was most peaceful epoch ever. I was skeptical when ment. Along with Ben, Ganesh co-authored a officially invested as the Louis W. Menck Profes- I started the book, but Pinker won me over by recently published paper entitled “A Qualitative sor in Psychology, and Dedre Gentner received the end. You should read it and see what you Assessment of HIV/AIDS Related Knowledge in a parallel honor, receiving the endowed Alice think! Inner-City Minority Students.” Gabrielle Twight Professorship. Satoru Suzuki For the new academic year, we welcome 16 Professor Robin Nusslock credits Ellen was promoted to full professor, Steve Franconeri new PhD students in the Psychology Depart- Reynolds for nearly single handedly getting his received tenure and was promoted to associate ment. Our new Director of Graduate Studies, lab up and running this past year. Ellen con- professor, and Ben Gorvine was promoted to Professor Sue Hespos, presided over a very suc- ducted her own research in the area of psycho- senior lecturer. cessful recruiting season. Among our new junior physiology, as well, producing an outstanding Perhaps the biggest highlight of the year colleagues, three students are from underrepre- honors thesis. She is off to Columbia University was the inaugural Northwestern Symposium on sented minorities. this fall to take a full-time position as a research Mind and Society, which took place on April 19 The new year also welcomes two new coordinator for a neuroscience lab. and featured Dan Gilbert, a social psychology faculty to Northwestern University. Through a Nicole Hendrix worked with Professors Sue rock star and professor at Harvard. Gilbert par- joint search with Northwestern’s Institute for Hespos and Sandy Waxman in research on infant ticipated in a panel discussion in the afternoon, Policy Research, the Psychology Department cognition. Sandy describes Nicole as a “dedi- which centered on issues raised in his recent hired a superstar husband-and-wife team: Pro- cated, thorough, and terrific writer.” Sue reports book, Stumbling on Happiness. Gilbert’s public fessors Edith Chen and Greg Miller. This single that Nicole will be leaving crying babies behind address that evening was extraordinary — a hire suddenly gives us a formidable program in this fall to attend graduate school in educational cross between a stand-up comedy routine and health psychology, which we hope to augment psychology at the University of Iowa. scientific lecture. Nearly 1,000 people filled with an upcoming hire in the area of “personality Grace Berman and Ben Yu worked this Pick Staiger Auditorium to hear Gilbert speak. I and health.” You can read about Edith, Greg, and past year in Professor Eli Finkel’s social psychol- believe this to have been one of the most suc- their son Joshua in accompanying articles for ogy lab. Quoting Eli here, Grace “hurled herself cessful, high-profile academic events that North- this issue of Psychwatch. headlong into one of the most contentious western University has ever put on. Contingent The department was also fortunate this topics among scholars of interpersonal attrac- on funding, the Psychology Department plans year to receive a generous grant from the tion. [Seems ironic that scholars who study to host a second Northwestern Symposium on Alumnae of Northwestern University Gifts and love should end up being so “contentious”!] Mind and Society in 2013-14. Grants Committee that allowed us to upgrade Along the way she provided crucial evidence In a related vein, a second highlight of the ceiling-mounted projectors in our two Swift to resolving scholarly debates in the field.” Ben the year was a big student-sponsored public Hall seminar rooms. The improved capability blended his expertise in biology with expertise lecture delivered by Harvard Professor Steve of these state-of-the-art projectors will allow in psychology to produce a thesis that required Pinker, back in February. Pinker spoke about faculty, graduate students, and guest presenters the best of both. He showed that testosterone his new book, The Better Angels of our Nature. to display high-resolution slides (such as brain spikes when people are exposed to romantic Amassing an enormous amount of scientific images) with improved clarity and visibility. mating