News

Please join us in congratulating our Department Chair, Jamie Edgin, for receiving the 2026 American Psychological Association Distinguished Contributions to the Advancement of Disability Issues in Psychology Award. 

This award recognizes an individual whose contributions benefit the psychological functioning or well-being of people with disabilities through promoting inclusion, advancing knowledge and research, and

Please join us in congratulating Angela Scarpa for securing several grants this summer in recognition of her work in teacher training and the Mobile Autism Clinic:

United Way of Southwest Virginia, Community Investment Grant, Child and Youth Opportunity, Using a Mobile Autism Clinic to Enhance Autism Care for Youth in Geographically Underserved Regions, PI: Scarpa, co-I: Shafique, 7/1/26-6/30/27

Rapha Foundation, Impact of

Please join us in congratulating Rosanna Breaux for receiving the 2026 College of Natural Sciences Early Career Alumni Award from UMass Amherst.

This award highlights her impactful research on children’s emotion regulation and parenting interventions, outstanding mentorship, and commitment to expanding access to mental health services in rural Virginia.

Please join us in congratulating Seongmin Park on receiving a Career Award from NSF!

Award Title: CAREER: Scaffolding Intelligence: How Structured Learning Guides the Formation of Neural Representations for Flexible Cognition.

Please join us in congratulating Meagan Brem on receiving the 2026 COS Outreach Award!

From the committee: “The review committee was very impressed with work on translating science on alcohol use, intimate partner violence, and sexual violence into impactful, evidence-based prevention and education initiatives. Your work is extraordinary and truly embodies the spirit of Ut Prosim.”

Shivani Goyal has been awarded an NRSA F31 from the NIH.

Grant title: “Identifying Relationships between Reinforcement Learning and Mood in Depression”

Please join us in congratulating Erica Shafer for receiving of the Make a Difference roundtable scholarship for graduate students!

The Virginia Tech Department of Psychology would like to recognize Dr. Heather Davis for being named an APS Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science!

APS Rising Stars are in the earliest stages of their research careers post-PhD and have already advanced the field with their innovative work.

Congratulations to Erica Shafer for being awarded the COVES Fellowship! 🥳
Learn more here ⬇️
https://vasem.org/fellows/erica-shafer/

Please join us in congratulating Hunter Tufarelli on receiving the 2026 Bob and Mary McClelland Aspire! Ut Prosim Scholarship for embodying the Aspiration for Student Learning "Embrace Ut Prosim As A Way Of Life."