Congratulations to the graduate students who successfully defended their dissertations during Fall 2024, Winter 2025, and Spring 2025, and those expecting to file in Summer 2025
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Xochitl Arlene Smola (Developmental Area) for receiving the 2025 Dena Chertoff Graduate Student Service Award
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Xochitl Arlene Smola (Developmental Area) for receiving the 2025 Dena Chertoff Graduate Student Service Award. Established in 2009 to honor Dena Chertoff (who served as Graduate Advisor for 38 years), this departmental award honors graduate students who have made outstanding contributions to the overall well-being of the students, faculty, and staff in the department.
Congratulations to Molly Smith (Social Area) for receiving the Harold H. Kelley Award
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Molly Smith (Social Area) for receiving the Harold H. Kelley Award for her paper titled “Can Generative AI Chatbots Emulate Human Connection? A Relationship Science Perspective.” This award has been given since 1997 and honors an exceptionally meritorious research paper addressing basic issues or theory in social psychology.
Congratulations to Ryan Sabillo (Social Area) for receiving the Shelley Taylor Dissertation Award
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Ryan Sabillo (Social Area) for receiving the Shelley Taylor Dissertation Award for his dissertation titled “Blurring Boundaries: A Social Categorization Approach to Facilitate Tolerance Toward Diversity.” This award has been given since 2013 and honors an exceptionally meritorious dissertation completed by a graduate student whose primary advisor is in the Social Area.
Congratulations to Kasheena Rogbeer (Social Area) for receiving the Bertram Raven Award
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Kasheena Rogbeer (Social Area) for receiving the Bertram Raven Award for her paper titled “Is Unity Durable Among People of Color? Two Large Experiments Stress-Testing Solidarity Between Black and Latino Americans.” This award has been given since 1997 and honors an exceptionally meritorious research paper addressing a social issue or problem.
Congratulations to Gabrielle Rinne (Health Area) for receiving the 2025 Joseph A. Gengerelli Distinguished Dissertation Award!
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Gabrielle Rinne (Health Area) for receiving the 2025 Joseph A. Gengerelli Distinguished Dissertation Award for having the most outstanding dissertation in our department this year. This award honors Professor Gengerelli, who is remembered for his teaching, guidance of students, innovative research, and departmental leadership.
Erin Morrow (Cognitive Area) was quoted in a Forbes article!
Date published: 07/02/25
Erin Morrow (Cognitive Area) was quoted in a Forbes article titled “Scientists-In-Training Speak Out To Protect Public Research.” The article is available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndrake/2025/06/19/scientists-in-training-speak-out-to-protect-public-research/
Congratulations to Kaitlin McManus (Clinical Area) for receiving a 2025 Enoch Gordis Research Recognition Award for a graduate student in the Psychosocial/Clinical category.
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Kaitlin McManus (Clinical Area) for receiving a 2025 Enoch Gordis Research Recognition Award for a graduate student in the Psychosocial/Clinical category. This award recognizes outstanding research by a trainee and was presented by the Research Society on Alcohol (RSA) at the 48th Annual RSA Scientific Meeting.
Congratulations to Tyrus Korecki (Health Area) for receiving the 2025 Health Psychology Paper Prize
Date published: 07/02/25
Congratulations to Tyrus Korecki (Health Area) for receiving the 2025 Health Psychology Paper Prize for his paper titled “Depression and Inflammation in Women with Breast Cancer: Risk and Resilience Factors,” published in Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine.
Congratulations to Kaitlin McManus (Clinical Area) for being selected by the Pritzker Committee for Excellence to receive the sixth annual Pritzker Graduate Scholar Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Kaitlin McManus (Clinical Area) was selected by the Pritzker Committee for Excellence to receive the sixth annual Pritzker Graduate Scholar Award. The Pritzker Graduate Scholar Award is intended to support graduate students in the Department of Psychology who demonstrate excellence in the conduct of psychological science with the potential for high public impact.
Congratulations to Lisa Shen (SAN Area) for receiving the Liu Yunghuo Bei Qui Memorial Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Lisa Shen (SAN Area) for receiving the Liu Yunghuo Bei Qui Memorial Award
Congratulations to Juan Luis Romero (BNS Area) for receiving the Atamdede Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Juan Luis Romero (BNS Area) for receiving the Atamdede Award.
Congratulations to Sydney Tran (Social Area) for receiving the Clara Leplin & Beatrice Rasof Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Sydney Tran (Social Area) for receiving the Clara Leplin Award. This endowed summer award is for a female graduate student in Social Psychology studying significant social issues.
Congratulations to Haley Wang (Clinical Area) for receiving the Charles Eugene Little Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Haley Wang (Clinical Area) for receiving the Charles Eugene Little Award.
Congratulations to Gloria Gomez (Clinical Area) for receiving the Monica Salinas Scholarship Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Gloria Gomez (Clinical Area) for receiving the Monica Salinas Scholarship Award. This scholarship provides summer funding and conference travel costs for a graduate student in Psychology who is committed to advancing the field of Latino mental health.
Congratulations to Michelle Chang (Clinical Area) for receiving the Jenessa Shapiro Memorial Graduate Award
Date published: 06/30/25
Congratulations to Michelle Chang (Clinical Area) for receiving the Jenessa Shapiro Memorial Graduate Award. This scholarship facilitates graduate students’ research at the intersection of psychology and justice
Congratulations to Alexair Gonzalez (Social Area), Praise Owoyemi (Clinical Area), Gil Moreu (Social Area), Tanner Demaree (Social Area), Kasheena Rogbeer (Social Area) for receiving Political Psychology Fellowships
Date published: 06/30/25
Alexair Gonzalez (Social Area), Praise Owoyemi (Clinical Area), Gil Moreu (Social Area), Kasheena Rogbeer (Social Area), and Tanner Demaree (Social Area) received the Political Psychology Fellowships. The Political Psychology Fellowship is awarded to doctoral students specializing in political psychology, the study of mass politics, and/or intergroup relations, enrolled in either the Psychology or Political Science Departments.
Congratulations to our Graduate Summer Research Mentorship recipients!
Date published: 06/30/25
The following 28 graduate students received the Graduate Division Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, which provides financial support for conducting research under the close mentorship of a faculty member this summer.
| Megan Cady | Cognitive |
| Yuhan Cheng | Clinical |
| Kristen Chu | Clinical |
| Shiloh Cleveland | Clinical |
| Sache Coury | Developmental |
| Brooke Cullen | Clinical |
| Melanie Dratva | Clinical |
| Ashley Flores | Clinical |
| Genesis Flores | Developmental |
| Hyewon Hong | Social |
| Tovah Irwin | Cognitive |
| Heather Jensen | SAN |
| Annabel Kady | Clinical |
| Kristen Laulette | Clinical |
| Shiyin Liu | Clinical |
| Christopher Machle | Clinical |
| Kaitlin McManus | Clinical |
| Jonathan Morrow | Cognitive |
| Natalia Pallis Hassani | BNS |
| Summer Pascual | Clinical |
| Nikhita Prabhu | Developmental |
| Melanie Ruiz | Cognitive |
| Lisa Shen | SAN |
| Molly Smith | Social |
| Karissa Tran | Health |
| Enya Walker | BNS |
| Alice Xu | Developmental |
| Haocheng Zhu | Cognitive |
Congratulations to our Graduate Research Mentorship (GRM) Program recipients!
Date published: 06/27/25
The following 11 graduate students received the Graduate Division Graduate Research Mentorship, which is designed to assist students in acquiring and developing advanced research skills under faculty mentorship.
| Ashley Chen | Cognitive |
| Yuhan Cheng | Clinical |
| Shiloh Cleveland | Clinical |
| Melanie Dratva | Clinical |
| Shiba Esfand | Clinical |
| Tovah Irwin | Cognitive |
| Heather Jensen | SAN |
| Annabel Kady | Clinical |
| Remus Mitchell | Quantitative |
| Molly Smith | Social |
| Enya Walker | BNS |
Congratulations to Kaia Sargent for winning the Student Poster Award
Date published: 11/08/24
Congratulations to Kaia Sargent (Behavioral Neuroscience Area) for winning the Student Poster Award (poster title “Brain-body dysconnectivity: Deficient autonomic regulation of cortical function in first-episode schizophrenia”) at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Society for Psychophysiological Research in Prague.