Psychological Scientists Honored by NIH

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research (OBSSR) has announced that psychological scientists are taking home top honors at its annual event recognizing the best in behavioral science. APS Fellow Terrie E. Moffitt has been named the NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors Distinguished Lecturer, and several psychological scientists have won the Matilda White Riley Early Stage Investigator Paper Competition.

OBSSR’s Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors festival recognizes the best behavioral science conducted across and beyond NIH. Moffitt, the Nannerl O. Keohane University Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, was selected to be the distinguished lecturer for this event. She will be presenting a talk, titled “A Good Childhood Is a Smart Investment,” which will discuss the ways in which interventions that enhance brain health in early life may hold the key to improving national health.

Moffitt’s work on this topic has transcended disciplinary and geographic boundaries. She is also Professor of Social Behaviour and Development at King’s College, London; and she is Associate Director of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Developmental Research Unit at the University of Otago, New Zealand. The cross-cutting nature of her work was on display recently in her keynote address at the 2015 International Convention for Psychological Science (see a video of her talk here.).

OBSSR also holds a paper competition in search of the best behavioral science conducted by early-career researchers. Psychological science’s strong showing continued in this category as well — psychological scientist Ruth T. Morin (San Francisco VA Medical Center) will be recognized for her paper titled “Do Multiple Health Events Reduce Resilience When Compared With Single Events?” Psychology researchers Justin Parent (Florida International University) and Bryan F. Singer (The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom) are also winners.

Scientists and members of the public who are interested in this research should attend the NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Honors festival. The event will be held on Thursday, May 31, 2018, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM in Bethesda, Maryland. The event is free, but registration is required. Register for the event here.