Message From the Chair

As I near the end of my first year as chair, it gives me great pleasure to let all of you know about the recent events in the Department of Psychology. A lot has happened since our newsletter in 2016 – some exciting changes, new arrivals, new achievements and some bittersweet goodbyes. Our department continues to offer students comprehensive training in psychology, within an energetic and supportive environment. Our faculty are presently dominated by active mid-career researchers who are at or near the pinnacle of their fields. It is an exciting time to be a UB psychologist!

The Department of Psychology turns 100 in 2019! We are planning a centennial celebration on Saturday, June 6 in 2020. Please save the date and plan to attend! An astounding number of changes, discoveries, and enriched lives have occurred in the last century, and we look forward to hosting this event to reflect on all of this. We will be sharing details as we get closer to the date. You should be receiving a “save the date” card soon with a request to RSVP. Please feel free to contact the office to indicate your interest in attending.

We have had several new arrivals since 2016. Gregory Loney will be joining our behavioral neuroscience area this fall as a tenure-track assistant professor. Katharine Azim (Barth) joined us in 2018 as a clinical assistant professor to help teach intensive discipline-specific writing classes as part of the new UB undergraduate curriculum. We welcomed Kelly Valenti to our department staff in 2017. In addition to these new arrivals, four research scientists who were previously affiliated with the Research Institute on Addictions joined the department: Rina Eiden, Michael Frone, Kathleen Parks and Maria Testa. These scientists have helped expand the presence of our department into the downtown area and offer existing new prospects for research engagement among our students, and further expand our existing departmental strength in the study of addictions. In this newsletter you can read a profile of one of our recent additions, Assistant Professor Marieke Van Heugten.

Several of our faculty members received recognition for their achievements in the past few years. Micheal Dent, from our cognitive area, was promoted to full professor. Three faculty members, Ken Demarree (social), Kristin Gainey (clinical), and Paul Meyer (behavioral neuroscience), received tenure and were promoted to associate professor. Several other faculty members have received awards and recognition from SUNY UB, and professional societies.

We also have had two valued faculty members retire: Paul Luce and Mark Kristal. Both served the department for many years.

Many of you will remember Paul Luce, whose research on spoken word recognition had a huge impact in cognitive psychology, and anticipated the leading present-day Bayesian models of perception. Paul joined the department in 1988. He served the department for 9 years as chair, and oversaw our largest recent increase in hiring. In addition to this, he headed the cognitive area, served on numerous committees in the department and university. Those of us who had the pleasure of working with Paul as a colleague remember what a kind and supportive mentor he could be; I know I had this experience working with him as an assistant professor while he was chair. At the same time, Paul’s razor-sharp mind caused him to be an insightful critic who kept us all performing at our best. In recognition of his many contributions to our department and university, we named the meeting room in the main office (room 209) Paul A. Luce Seminar Room. The association of our former colleague with this kind of space appropriately mirrors the research contributions of its namesake, as a place, “where the deft use of language is championed.”

Mark Kristal served the Department of Psychology for over 40 years and had a considerable impact on our behavioral neuroscience area, which he headed for nearly half of this time. In addition Mark served in various higher administrative positions in in the College of Arts and Sciences and, prior to that, the faculty of social sciences. To his last years at UB, Mark ran an active research lab that focused on the biological bases of material behavior, and was known as a mentor and colleague to challenged students to maximize their scholarly abilities.

Our undergraduate program continues to flourish. This past year, we had nearly 1,500 psychology majors in Buffalo, nearly 500 majors in our Singapore program, and about 100 students enrolled in our new minor in psychology, just introduced this past academic year. In the past few years, psychology has expanded connections between our own undergraduate program and other UB programs by participating in the new UB curriculum, a direct admit program for psychology students to the Masters in Public Health, participation in a new major in neuroscience, and as the home department for a planned minor in addictions, on target to begin in Fall 2019. To date, student interest in psychology shows no signs of waning, and our faculty and graduate students continue to serve the undergraduate population at UB with energy and enthusiasm. You can read about some of the achievements of our students throughout this newsletter.

As always, we very much want to hear about you. If you would like to contribute information about yourself, or colleagues of yours who have been affiliated with the department, please send an e-mail to pqp@buffalo.edu. You might also consider making a donation to our department: arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/psychology/about/support-psychology . 

Best regards,

Peter Pfordresher
Chair