News

2017 UPPDA Awards

Congratulations to Brooke Molina, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Pediatrics, and Gabriela Alarcon, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Psychiatry, on their receipt of awards from the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association (UPPDA) at its annual Data & Dine Symposium. The annual event features a poster session and a dinner honoring postdoctoral associates and scholars, faculty, and administrators.

Dr. Molina was presented with the 2017 UPPDA Mentor Award. The award recognizes a faculty member who has engaged in exceptional mentoring of postdoctoral scholars.  Dr. Molina serves as a member of the training faculty for three T32 postdoctoral grants and the Clinical Psychology Internship program at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and co-directs the department's Career and Research Development (CARD) Seminar Series.

Dr. Alarcon won a Best Poster Presentation Award for her poster "Adolescents Gender and Depressive Symptoms are Associated with Amygdala Functional Connectivity during Social Reward." The award includes a stipend to support presentation of her work at a national scientific meeting. Dr. Alarcon conducted this study in collaboration with Dr. Erika Forbes, her mentor and the director of the Affective Neuroscience and Developmental Psychopathology Laboratory.

These awards are exemplary of the department?s reputation for outstanding mentorship and the innovative research being conducted by its young investigators.