Psych prof wins research award
Students with autism invited to preview college life
Matthew T. Weaver, Ph.D. , has been selected by the American Psychological Association to receive the 2013 Early Career Researcher Award from the B.F. Skinner Foundation for his post-doctoral research on the behavioral efects of nicotine. Weaver joined Mercyhurst in 2012 to head the new Laboratory on Addictive and Impulsive Behavior. “Roughly 19 percent of
For the fourth year in a row, the Asperger Initiative at Mercyhurst (AIM) will ofer a residential summer program designed to enable college-bound teenagers with Asperger’s and high-functioning autism to test the waters of university life. The Summer Foundations Program, scheduled for July 6-27 on the Erie campus, focuses on the development of skills necessary to succeed in college. Enrollees will live in a residence hall and eat in the university cafeteria, enroll in a three-credit college course, and interact with fellow students in social activities. For more information, contact Dianne Rogers at drogers@mercyhurst.edu , or call her at 814-824-2450 . Mercyhurst’s innovative program for college students on the autism spectrum has continued to earn recognition, including an invitation for AIM Coordinator Bradley McGarry to testify in November before a Congressional committee studying the federal government’s response to autism.
adults smoke, but many more try smoking and do not continue to smoke,”Weaver said. “So what are the diferences between those who continue to smoke and those who quit? This is just one of the questions we’d like to ask.” Weaver did similar research at the University of Pittsburgh using an animal model. He now plans to expand his work to study human subjects.
Two faculty members named research fellows
Freeh to headline ‘Hurst intelligence forum in Ireland
Dyan Jones, Ph.D. , assistant professor of physics, and Robert H. von Thaden, Jr., Ph.D. , associate professor of religious studies, have been named research fellows for 2013, honored for consistently producing scholarship at the highest level within their disciplines. Jones earned her doctorate in physics education research at Kansas State University. She has begun creating upper-division physics courses and created a minor program in physics as well. She has presented dozens of papers at national conferences and published her research fndings in many peer-reviewed proceedings and journals. von Thaden specializes in biblical and other sacred texts and is currently researching and writing about the cognitive science of religion. He has written a book, Sex, Christ, and Embodied Cognition: Paul’s Wisdom for Corinth (2012), and a number of articles and academic papers.
Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, will deliver the keynote address at Mercyhurst’s Global Intelligence Forum , The Dungarvan Conference, July 7-10 in Dungarvan, Ireland.
Sponsored by the Institute for Intelligence Studies at Mercyhurst University , the third biennial conference will focus on “Preparing Intelligence Analysts for the 21st Century.” Panelists will address how leaders can efectively establish intelligence practices to enhance decision-making in a world marked by
intensifying globalization and widespread infuences of technology. An estimated 180 panelists and delegates – the largest group to date – are expected to attend, said James Breckenridge, Ph.D. , executive director of the Institute for Intelligence Studies. For more information on the forum and its oferings, visit globalintelligenceforum.com .
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