{"id":9788,"date":"2025-02-07T00:25:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T00:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/?page_id=9788"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:47:33","slug":"student-awards","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/psyc\/student-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Awards"},"content":{"rendered":" \n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n American Association for Advancement of Science Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering Workshop\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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March 31, 2026<\/p>\n

It was announced in last month\u2019s Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences Board Meeting that two of our own graduate students \u2014 Yalda Daryani & Ellie Xu \u2014 were among the four students selected to participate in the\u00a0American Association for the Advancement of Science Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) Workshop in Washington, DC. It\u2019s a competitive application process, so please send your\u00a0congratulations<\/span>\u00a0to them on being selected!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Dornsife Summer Research Award (Gold Family Fellowship)\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April 28, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

Minci Zhang, who is one of our graduate students in David Schwartz\u2019s lab. Minci received the Dornsife Summer Research Award. It is also known as the Gold Family Fellowship.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Fellowship is awarded to outstanding graduate students on the basis of academic promise.<\/p>\n

Congratulations<\/span>\u00a0Minci on a well-deserved award!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Excellence in Scientific Writing 2025\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April 23, 2025<\/p>\n

Please join me in congratulating the students below on receiving the\u00a0Excellence in Scientific Writing\u00a0<\/i><\/b>2025 from the Department of Psychology. Each area chose one PhD student from any year who has excelled in writing (a paper for publication, a conference presentation\/poster, 2nd year project, dissertation, etc.), in the past year. Each student will be awarded a $100 prize.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Developmental Psychology: Wani Qiu<\/b><\/p>\n

Brain and Cognitive Science: Armin Bazarjani<\/b><\/p>\n

Social Psychology: Drew Gorenz<\/b><\/p>\n

Clinical Science: Sarah Zapetis<\/b><\/p>\n

Quantitative Methods & Computational Psychology: Kevin Kapadia<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n P.E.O. Scholar Award for 2025\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April 22, 2025<\/span><\/p>\n

Emily Satinsky (the Clinical Science Program at USC) received the P.E.O. Scholar Award for 2025. This is a highly selective and prestigious award.<\/p>\n

The P.E.O. Scholar Awards support women who are changing the world through the pursuit of a doctoral-level degree by providing them with merit-based awards to assist in the success of their educational goals. With approximately 6,000 chapters across the U.S. and Canada, the P.E.O. Sisterhood supports the higher education of almost a quarter of a million women.<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Emily on a well-deserved award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n General Education Graduate Assistant Award\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April 21, 2025<\/p>\n

Elayne Zhou was awarded the General Education Graduate Assistant Award. This is for her contribution to the GE program during the Fall 2023 through Spring 2024 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Russell Endowed Dissertation Completion Fellowship<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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March 5, 2025<\/p>\n

Please join us in congratulating our graduate student Morgan Lynch on receiving the Russell Endowed Dissertation Completion Fellowship form USC Graduate School. Morgan is in Dr. Chris Beam\u2019s lab. Congratulations Morgan on a well-deserved award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n INS Program Award Winner<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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January 13, 2025<\/p>\n

Laura Fenton was awarded the International Neuropsychological Society Graduate Student research award! She will receive the award in person at the awards ceremony on Wednesday from 5:30-6:30pm at INS for her abstract on Associations Between Brain Morphology, Cognitive Function, and Financial Exploitation Vulnerability in Older Adults. Congratulations Laura!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n PhD student\u00a0Jenna\u00a0Blyler won Second prize for her poster at the Society for Risk Analysis\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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December 11, 2024<\/p>\n

PhD student\u00a0Jenna\u00a0Blyler\u00a0won second prize for her poster at the Society for Risk Analysis! Her co-authors are Aitor Marcos, Leah Tieger, Richard John, and Joe Arvai. The poster is called \u201cToxic soups and silver spoons: How health and wealth predict risk perceptions near a radioactive superfund site\u201d<\/p>\n

Congrats\u00a0to\u00a0Jenna\u00a0and her co-author team!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Research Brief\u00a0in\u00a0The Conversation\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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October 22, 2025<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Jackson Trager for his new Research Brief<\/i>\u00a0in\u00a0The Conversation<\/i>, \u201c<\/span>Is it wrong to have too much money? Your answer may depend on deep-seated values \u2013 and your country\u2019s economy.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

The piece has been picked up and republished by\u00a0Yahoo News<\/a>,\u00a0Salon<\/a>,\u00a0Phys.org<\/a>,\u00a0Chron<\/a>\u00a0and the McClatchy Newspapers network (including the\u00a0Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee, Kansas City Star, Charlotte Observer, Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Lexington Herald-Leader<\/i>\u00a0and others).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n

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\n Society of Affective Science (SAS) Best Dissertation Award<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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August 1, 2024<\/p>\n

Please join us in congratulating Anthony Vaccaro on receiving the Society of Affective Science (SAS) Best Dissertation Award for 2024. Anthony is currently a post doc in Darby Saxbe\u2019s lab, but he did his graduate work in Jonas Kaplan\u2019s lab. The SAS committee received numerous exceptional nominations for the Award, but they were unanimous in selecting Anthony for this Award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Anthony published a really interesting Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April 30, 2024<\/span><\/p>\n

Congratulations to Anthony<\/span>\u00a0Vaccaro. He is Darby Saxbe\u2019s post-doc, and a former graduate student in our Department who did his graduate studies at the BCI (Antonio Damasio and Jonas Kaplan were his mentors).\u00a0Anthony<\/span>\u00a0published a really interesting Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times about social media use and the brain, which also makes some more general points about the use of neuroscience in the media. It is not easy to get published in LA Times! So big congratulation to\u00a0Anthony<\/span>\u00a0on this great accomplishment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Excellence in Scientific Writing<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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March 10, 2024<\/p>\n

Please join us in congratulating the students below on receiving the Excellence in Scientific Writing 2024 from the Department of Psychology. Each area chooses one student from any year who has excelled in writing (a paper for publication, a conference presentation\/poster, 2nd year project, dissertation, etc.), in the past year. Each student was awarded a $100 prize.<\/p>\n

Developmental Psychology: Wani Qiu
\nBrain and Cognitive Science: Sarah Hennessy
\nSocial Psychology: Kevin Choi
\nClinical Science: Morgan Lynch
\nQuantitative Methods & Computational Psychology: Meltem Ozcan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n USC Dornsife\u2019s 2023 Communicator of the Year Award<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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February 24, 2024<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Ian Anderson for receiving the USC Dornsife\u2019s 2023 Communicator of the Year Award. This award honors scholars who contribute significant time and effort to meaningfully improve the public\u2019s understanding of issues, influence policy, and\/or raise the level of public discourse around research and scholarship conducted at Dornsife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n APA Dissertation Research Award for 2023\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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December 24, 2023<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Katie Galbraith on receiving the APA Dissertation Research Award for 2023. This is a prestigious award that Katie received in recognition of her promising contribution to psychological science. Katie is from the Clinical Area, and she worked with Stan Huey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Gold Family Fellowship Award<\/a>\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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May 24, 2023<\/p>\n

Congratulations to Laura Fenton for receiving the Gold Family Fellowship Award in the amount of $5,000. This is awarded to a limited number of PhD candidates for research related to their dissertation. Gold Family Fellows are chosen on the basis of extraordinary academic promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Excellence in Scientific Writing\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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April, 2023<\/p>\n

Please join us in congratulating the students below on receiving the Excellence in Scientific Writing 2023 from the Department of Psychology. Each area chooses one student from any year who has excelled in writing (a paper for publication, a conference presentation\/poster, 2nd year project, dissertation, etc.), in the past year. Each student was awarded a $100 prize.<\/p>\n

Developmental Psychology: Minci Zhang<\/span>
\nBrain and Cognitive Science: Jungwon Min<\/span>
\nSocial Psychology: Joshua Inwald<\/span>
\nClinical Science: Ellie Xu<\/span>
\nQuantitative Methods & Computational Psychology: Winnie Tse<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n\n \n <\/div>\n\n \n
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\n SPSP Student Publication Award\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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October 24, 2022<\/p>\n

Asaf Mazar won the best student led paper in 2022 SPSP Student Publication Award for his paper: The Unintentional Nonconformist: Habits Promote Resistance to Social influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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