Media, Awards, Announcements

The 2025 recipients of the Arts and Sciences Staff Excellence Recognition Awards for Distinguished Service were celebrated at on Wednesday, February 25 at Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus. Executive Dean Juli Wade and Vice Dean of Administration Bob Maruca presented the awards, recognizing eight individuals and one team whose dedication and impact throughout 2025 elevated the School of Arts and Sciences. Click here to read more.

Young children are more inclined to believe incorrect math information from men than accurate information from women, according to our latest study published in the journal Developmental Science. The findings suggest that early gender stereotypes can influence learning itself, not just attitudes toward intelligence as previously thought. Rutgers Today article: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/how-gender-bias-influences-math-education Research publication:...

On Thursday May 15, 2025 the School of Graduate Studies celebrated the students, faculty and staff who received the 2025 SGS Merit and Achievement awards. Please see below for the list of winners. We are proud of all of our graduates!  Dr. Farris is the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring while Dr. Svensson is the recipient of the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award. 

This year, we expect 700+ students to graduate as Psychology majors. Of those 700+ majors, only 19 will graduate with the designation “Honors Research Scholar in Psychology”. These 19 represent our most accomplished, intellectually engaged, and outstanding students. ALL the Honors students did excellent work in the planning, execution, and presentation of their projects. Everyone (and every project) was outstanding! We should be proud as a department to have such a talented group of students,...

Mindy is currently a doctoral candidate and psychology resident at Brown University, working under the supervision of Dr. Samantha Farris. Her project was titled "A Systematic Review of Safety Behavior Assessment in Psychiatric and Medical Conditions". False safety behaviors are assessed across a diverse range of psychiatric and medical conditions in which they provide short term relief from anxious distress by seemingly preventing feared catastrophes. Safety behaviors sustain anxiety in the...

Tracking Tiny Facial Movements Can Reveal Subtle Emotions in Autistic Individuals Professor Torres’ Sensory Motor Integration Lab has discovered that tiny facial movements – too slight for the human eye to notice – could help scientists better understand social communication in people with autism. The paper, “Hidden social and emotional competencies in autism spectrum disorders captured through the digital lens” was published @Frontiers in Psychiatry. Leading author is Prof. Torres and...

Dr. Mona Elsayed from the Rutgers University Sensory Motor Integration Laboratory, is awarded a two-year Postdoctoral fellowship to bring RU SMIL technology into the hands of parents and practitioners in the autism sensory motor OT practices. The partnership between Dr. Elsayed and Manisha Lad from the Sensory Pathway Center is sponsored by the NJ Department of Labor to expand best practices and introduce scientific advances across businesses serving the NJ community.

Alisa Ray, our laboratory researcher, is the recipient of the 2024 SAS Award for the Outstanding Contribution to Operational Excellence Read more: SAS 2024 Staff Excellence Recognition Awards

Dr. David Barker, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, published a recent opinion piece in The Transmitter discussing the recent threats to scientific funding through a series of executive orders and funding freezes at the NIH. The piece lays out practical advice for institutions, departments, labs, and individuals for how to maintain a positive and inclusive environment as these traverse this changing political landscape.

Dr. Mona Elsayed, a postdoctoral associate working with Professor Elizabeth Torres were awarded the January 2025 Technology of the Month for a developing a 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹 (patent pending) that has sparked the interest of pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The Rutgers Innovation Awards recognize researchers who have translated world-class research into an invention/innovation that would benefit society. Their novel approach uses biosignal data to establish...

Dr. Eileen Kowler passed away on December 30, 2024. Eileen was a distinguished professor, whose dedication to research, service to the department, and contributions to the university and her field were truly exceptional. For over 40 years, we were fortunate to have her as a member of our faculty. To many, Eileen was far more than a colleague. She was a mentor, an advocate, a friend, and an inspirational leader. Eileen was a brilliant scientist, whose work on eye movements, attention, and...

Dr. Louis Matzel, Dr. Jenny Wang and Dr. Marina Gelfand are the recipients of the 2023 – 2024 SAS Award for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education. Each year, awards for Distinguished Contributions to Undergraduate Education are given to professors in the School of Arts and Sciences to recognize their outstanding achievements in and beyond the classroom, their engagement with their students and pedagogic communities, and their overall commitment to the undergraduate education...

Dr. Jessica Hamilton is one of the more than two dozen faculty, staff, students and organizations who were recognized by the Committee to Advance Our Common Purposes. Dr. Hamilton received the prestigious Torchbearer Award, which is given to “leaders in promoting diversity, inclusion, equity, and access at Rutgers through their academic research, teaching, community engagement, and/or workplace engagement, program development, and leadership. This award replaces the Leaders of Faculty...

Dr. Theo Bermperidis has published a new paper in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. This is is his third publication from his PhD Thesis, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCmSaiBWD3g&t=283s Digital screener of socio-motor agency balancing motor autonomy and motor control” by Bermperidis and Torres from the Sensory Motor Integration Lab offers a new framework that combines stochastic analyses, non-linear dynamics, and information theory to streamline and facilitate scaling the screening and...

Autism Autonomy: In Search of Our Human Dignity provides a new and unifying methodological framework and discusses machine learning and biometrics techniques to diagnose, characterize, and treat patterns of sensory motor control underlying autism symptoms. With the hope of improving basic research in these areas, this volume will allow readers to design better interventions and provide awareness of a number of new technologies used in the autism field. Wearable bio-sensing technologies,...

In collaboration with Dr. Hymie Anisman and Dr. Shawn Hayley, Dr. Alexander Kusnecov published a new book: The Immune System: Mental Health and Neurological Conditions The Immune System: Mental Health and Neurological Conditions fully investigates how immune-related cellular, molecular, and anatomical changes impact mental functioning. The book combines human and animal studies to reveal immunological changes related to mental-health problems. In addition, users will find comprehensive...