Rosen paper named 2008 Article of the Year by AcademyHealth.
An article co-authored by Professor David Rosen has been named as the recipient of the 2008 Article of the Year Award by AcademyHealth, a leading professional society for health services researchers and policy analysts. The Article-of-the-Year Award recognizes the best scientific work that the fields of health services research and health policy have produced and published during the previous calendar year. The award-winning article provides new insights into the delivery of health care and advances knowledge of the field. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The reference for the article is: Tai-Seale, M., McGuire, T., Colenda, C., Rosen, R., & Cook, M.A. (2007) Two-Minute Mental Health Care for Elderly Patients: Inside Primary Care Visits. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 55 (12), 1903–1911. The award-winning article documented that little time is spent on mental health care for elderly patients despite heavy disease burdens. Analyses suggested wide variations in physician effort in providing mental health care, and found that referrals to mental health specialists were rare even for severely depressed and suicidal patients. A description of the Award and previous winners may be found at:
http://www.academyhealth.org/awards/article.htm
A&M Psychology majors rout Texas, Trinity in 11th Annual Brain Bowl
A team of Texas A&M undergraduate Psychology majors coached by Professor Jennifer Bizon routed teams from the University of Texas and Trinity University to capture the championship in the 11th Annual Brain Bowl, sponsored by the University of Texas Health Sciences Center-San Antonio, Department of Pharmacology's Center for Biomedical Neuroscience. The Annual Brain Bowl is the premier event at the Health Science Center for the nationally celebrated Brain Awareness Week. The Brain Bowl is a neuroscience quiz show, modeled after the old University Challenge, in which three teams of undergraduates from colleges and universities across Texas compete for prizes and the coveted Brain Bowl trophy. As the questions increase in difficulty, the number of points awarded for guessing correctly increases as well. In a convincing demonstration of their mastery of the field, the Texas A&M team scored 694 points, while UT scored 410 points and Trinity was held to 295 points. The team was comprised of Becca Simmons (sophomore), Juliana McElroy (senior), Ryan Gilbert (senior), Alex Wyckoff (senior), and Jeff Mayse (Junior). More on the Brain Bowl can be found at:
http://www.uthscsa.edu/cbn/brainBowl.html
Jensen-Doss awarded NIMH grant to study treatments for children
Professor Amanda Jensen-Doss has received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study implementation of Evidence-Based Treatments for children. The study seeks to assess the impact of the implementation of these treatments on the treatment outcomes of more than 4,000 children (ages 4-18) treated in the Harris County (Houston, Texas) Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority. The study will also examine whether outcomes varied across children or providers and, if so, study hypothesized child and provider moderators of this variability (Aim 2).
TAMU Clinical Psychology identified as Top 10 Clinical Program
The TAMU Clinical Psychology program was ranked in the Top 10 in the country in terms of faculty scholarly productivity for the 2006-2007 period, according to Academic Analytics. The Top 10 rankings of various fields may be found at:
http://www.academicanalytics.com/TopSchools/TopPrograms.aspx#11
The rankings are based upon a method for evaluating doctoral programs at Research Universities (across all Carnegie research classifications), based on a set of statistical algorithms developed by Lawrence Martin, Ph.D. and Anthony Olejniczak, Ph.D.. The index measures the annual productivity of faculty on several factors including publications (books and journal articles), citations of journal publications, Federal research funding, and awards and honors.
LaSarge Awarded NRSA Fellowship from National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Candi LaSarge, doctoral student in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience, was awarded a Kirchstein NRSA Fellowship from NIH under the direction of Professor Jennifer Bizon. The overarching hypothesis to be tested in her project is that learning and memory deficits that are associated with advanced age are associated with dysfunction of both basal forbrain cholinergic and GABAergic neurons. The results of these experiments could provide novel pharmacological approaches to combat the escalating problem of age-related cognitive decline.
Dana Rhodes wins AFS Teaching Excellence Award
Dana Rhodes, graduate student in Industrial/Organizational Psychology, has been named as the 2008 recipient of the AFS Distinguished Graduate Student Award for Teaching Excellence. This award is made annually to a graduate student who has made outstanding contributions to teaching in the classroom as well as amassing an excellent academic record. Dana works with Dr. Dan Newman in the I/O program.
Montgomery receives Arseven Memorial Award
Karienn Montgomery, graduate student in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology, has been selected as the recipient of the ‘Susan M. Arseven ‘75 Make-A-Difference Memorial Award’ for 2008. This award, recognized with a memorial plaque and a monetary award, was dedicated to recognizing extraordinary efforts in the face of challenging circumstances and is bestowed by the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) conference. Karienn works with Dr. Jennifer Bizon on her research in cytotoxic effects and damage to the developing central nervous system.
Meagher receives NIH grant to study stress model of Multiple Sclerosis
Mary Meagher (PI) recently was awarded a NIH/NINDS RO1 grant in collaboration with Jane Welsh (Co-PI, Vet Med), Jen Bizon (Co-I), Erin Young (Postdoc), and Elisabeth Vichaya (Grad Student). This four year, million grant examines the impact of social stress on disease course in an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Specifically, the proposed experiments investigate the role of stress-induced pro-inflammatory cytokines in mediating the adverse behavioral and neuroinflammatory effects of social stress on Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis infection, an animal model of MS. The results could establish a novel mechanism of stress-induced disease exacerbation in a clinically relevant animal model.
Bortfeld study funded by Dana Foundation
A grant from the Dana Foundation's Brain and Immuno-imaging program will fund a study to be conducted by Professor Heather Bortfeld in collaboration with Dr. John Oghalai (Baylor College of Medicine). The project will use conventional near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging in deaf children who have had a cochlear implant, to develop an objective measure of auditory perception that can guide optimal programming of the implanted electrodes and hence refine current treatments for congenital deafness.
Simon receives NRSA grant
Nicholas Simon, graduate student in Behavioral and Cellular Neuroscience, was awarded a National Research Service Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for a project entitled Long-Term Cocaine Effects on Impulsive Choice and Orbitofrontal Cortex Activity. His research on this two year project with his sponsor, Dr. Barry Setlow, will examine behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms through which exposure to drugs of abuse causes long-lasting alterations in decision-making processes. Dr. Jennifer Bizon is a co-sponsor for this project.
Morey listed among leading scholars in Clinical Psychology
A recent study by Stewart, Wu, & Roberts (2007 Journal of Clinical Psychology, 63, 1209-1215) listed Professor Les Morey as being among the 70 most productive scholars in Clinical Psychology. A related study (Stewart, Roberts & Roy, 2007 Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 14, 157-171) listed the Texas A&M Clinical Psychology program as the 24th most productive program in the country in terms of median publications per faculy member.
Jensen-Doss receives grant to study Texas crisis systems
Dr. Amanda Jensen-Doss, in collaboration with Dr. Charmichael of the Public Policy Research Institute, has been selected to serve as the independent evaluators for the state of Texas' efforts to redesign its community mental health crisis system. The project will last from April 1, 2008 to November 30, 2009, and will involve helping the state evaluate whether this redesign has led to improvements in the way in which Texas who are experiencing a mental health crisis are served.