Psychology Department (0436)
109 Williams Hall
Blacksburg VA 24061
Phone: 540-231-6581
Fax: 540-231-3652
Email: psycinfo@vt.edu

McNair Scholars Karla Delgado, Jordan Booker, and Shelmeshia Hill celebrate after presenting their work at the Virginia Tech Summer Research Symposium. Karla, Jordan, and Shelmeshia developed and carried out research projects in Assistant Professor Julie Dunsmore’s Social Development Lab. Research in the Social Development Lab focuses on parent-child emotional communication and child socio-emotional competence. You can read more about the Social Development Lab at http://www.psyc.vt.edu/labs/socdev/.

Welcome

Welcome to the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech. The Department is home to more than 25 faculty, 6 staff, 70 graduate students, and 800 undergraduate majors. We offer doctoral programs in Clinical Psychology, Developmental and Biological Psychology, and Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Our faculty and students are actively engaged in basic and applied research that is advancing knowledge in a variety of areas of psychology and health related behavior. If these pages do not answer your questions please contact us directly and we will be more than happy to help.

- Dr. Robert Stephens

Department News

Dr. David Williams, Assistant Professor of Community Health at Brown University, has been named the College of Science Outstanding Recent Alumnus for 2009-2010

Rachel Moore will receive a Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) Diversity Research Grant at the SPP Award Ceremony at the American Psychological Association convention in Toronto in August.

Former industrial/organizational graduate student Gavan O'Shea, Ph.D. presented testimony on June 18 to the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Dr. O'Shea presented on behalf of the American Psychological Association (APA) because of his research expertise and military-oriented work in the areas of organizational commitment, personnel selection, and leadership assessment.

Dr. Angela Scarpa's collaborative research with Carilion hospital investigators on screening for autism spectrum disorders is featured on the home page http://www.vtc.vt.edu of the Virginia Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute.

The American Psychological Foundation Board of Trustees has selected E. Scott Geller, Ph.D. of Virgnia Tech as the recipient of the 2009 Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in Psychology in the Public Interest.

Robin Panneton, Associate Professor of Psychology and past Director of the Developmental and Biological Psychology area, has been apponted as the university's Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) coordinator by Vice President and Dean for Undergraduate Education, Daniel Wubah.

Kristy Benoit, graduate student in clinical psychology, received a research award from the Virginia Tech chapter of Sigma Xi.

Tom Pardikes was selected for a summer fellowship with the NSF's East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI), in conjunction with the National Science Council of Taiwan. The fellowship will support Tom's 8-week stay this summer in the lab of Dr. Cheng-Deng Kuo in Taiwan, where Tom will be collaborating with Dr. Kuo on a study of autonomic nervous system activity in meditators.

Chad Stephens has been selected to receive a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) award from the NASA Langley Research center in Hampton, VA. The award will support Chad's dissertation research, which evolved from his work as a summer fellow at Langley last year under the direction of Dr. Alan Pope.

Richard Winett, Heilig Meyers Professor of Psychology and Director of the Center for Research in Health Behavior, has been appointed as an expert reviewer for the National Cancer Institute's initiative for Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer (TREC).

Brenda Salley has been awarded a 2009 American Psychological Foundation Elizabeth Musterberg Koppitz Graduate Fellowship in the amount of $25,000. This is a highly competitive and prestigious predoctoral fellowship. Brenda’s doctoral advisors are Robin Panneton and Angela Scarpa.