Undergraduate Psychology Majors Earn UMD Research Awards!

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Department of Psychology congratulate our three PSYC undergraduate students who were named among UMD’s Undergraduate Researchers of the Year for 2015: Abby Hsiung, Margaret Sundel and Jennifer Weinstein.

This honor includes an award of $1,000, a commemorative plaque and inclusion in the opening ceremonies for Undergraduate Research Day, which will be held 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, April 29, in the Grand Ballroom of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. At the ceremony, they will have the opportunity to present a poster about their research and projects.

Hsiung (pictured above) and Sundel (pictured below right) were nominated by

Assistant Professor Tracy Riggins, who runs the Neurocognitive Development Laboratory. That lab focuses on providing a better understanding of memory development by examining changes in neural substrates supporting this ability. The empirical research conducted in her laboratory involves both typically developing children and children at-risk for cognitive impairments and uses a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methodologies.

Professor Riggins and her collaborator, Assistant Professor Elizabeth Redcay, recently were awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a study on the structural and functional development of brain regions known to play an important role in memory during childhood. (See page 18 of the Be the Solution Newsletter.)  

Weinstein (pictured left) was nominated by Assistant Professor Alexander J. Shackman, who directs the Affective and Translational Neuroscience Lab. This lab focuses on affective and cognitive neuroscience; neural bases of threat processing, anxiety, and their application to psychiatric disorders; and more.

The College celebrates the achievements of these students, their faculty mentors and the Department of Psychology.