To request a media interview, please reach out to School of Biological Sciences experts using our faculty directory, or contact Jess Hunt-Ralston, College of Sciences communications director. A list of faculty experts and research areas across the College of Sciences at Georgia Tech is also available to journalists upon request.
Kimberly French, assistant professor in the School of Psychology, has won the 2021 Schmidt-Hunter Meta-analysis Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP.) The award is given to a member of SIOP or team (with at least one member who is a SIOP member) whose work or research has been shown to advance I-O psychology as documented in published research in which meta-analysis is used.
Applied Optics"Science works, y'all!" says Georgia Tech President and School of Psychology alumnus Ángel Cabrera, as he talks about the Institute's Covid-19 response, Georgia Tech's new 10-year Strategic Plan, and his relationship with Georgia Tech and Atlanta community.
maritimeDaniel Spieler is a professor in the School of Psychology at Georgia Tech who regularly gets in two hours of cardio five days per week. He does his workout each morning and evening, and it powers his commute to and from his work at Georgia Tech, where he studies cognitive aging. Daniel finds his 13-mile bike commute and his research focus to be connected in a crucial way: “One aspect of research in cognitive aging is a better understanding that things like cardiovascular exercise are really important for maintaining cognition as people age.” In short, Daniel says activities like biking can keep you alert as you get older.
Molecular BindingPsychologist Elizabeth Cabrera can't help but spread the word about the importance of making positivity a priority in our work and personal lives. She graduated with an MS in 1993 and Ph.D. in 1995, both from the School of Psychology. Now, through her company Cabrera Insights, she focues on applying positive psychology to the workplace. She's also profiled along with other College of Sciences graduates in our 2018 Alumni Homecoming series.
Tami PhillipsBeing laid off when you're close to retirement can be devastating. It is more difficult for older employees to find new jobs. A 2015 study by the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Psychology and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management found that unemployed Americans over 50 are likely to be job hunting for six weeks longer than those in their 30s and 40s and nearly 11 weeks longer than those in their 20s. School of Psychology Professor Ruth Kanfer was a co-author of the original study.
sustainable fuelsHow do rats know when their partners are feeling amorous? One way female rats show they’re feeling frisky is to wiggle their ears – or rather, very rapidly shake their head, so that it looks like their ears are moving. So when Mary Holder, a neuroscientist working at the School of Psychology at Georgia Tech, sees lady rats wiggling their ears, she knows they’re ready to mate. To the casual observer, studying ear wiggling in rats might seem trivial, but rat sex is actually crucial in improving our understanding of sexual behaviors in mammals.
Here's another good reason to head to the gym even just for some low-impact resistance training: A brief workout can improve your long-term memory, according to a September 2014 study led by Georgia Tech School of Psychology Associate Professor Audrey Duarte. Participants were shown a group of pictures and then directed to do 20 minutes of resistance or strength-training exercises, taking a break every few minutes. They were then asked to recall details of the images. "We found that exercising immediately after studying pictures increased memory of those pictures 48 hours later by 10 percent," Duarte says.
Phillip B. StarlingGeorgia tech alumnus Angel Cabrera, now the president of George Mason University (GMU), said Friday that some financial gift agreements by GMU "fall short of the standards of academic indpenedence" and raise questions about donor influence at the public institution. Cabrera received a Ph.D. from the School of Psychology.
graduation 2023It's a many-splendored thing, and a crazy little thing. It is endless, but that didn't stop Rihanna from finding it. And after all these years, Foreigner still wants to know what it is. We're talking about love, and so is Brides Magazine, which asked five experts in various disciplines to define and expound on the romantic feeling that makes the world go round. Laura Schaeffer, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Psychology, gives us the scientific view involving "love" chemicals that spark sensuous snapses in our brain during the phases of attraction.
inequityThe average American commute is about 27 minutes. While people in many industries were able to start working from home during the pandemic, recouping their travel time, nearly half of U.S. workers kept devoting a good chunk of their day — sometimes an hour or more — to being in transit. Pandemic-era commuting has widened several divides: between those who can work remotely and those who can’t, and between those who drive and those who use public transportation. The decrease in travel by those able to work remotely has changed the nature of commutes for everyone else — streamlining rush-hour traffic, for example, but making trains run less often. This examination of how commutes have changed over the last three years includes comments from Christopher Wiese, assistant professor in the School of Psychology.
The New York Times
