News

Beatriz Luna, PhD (Staunton Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry and Professor of Psychology) has received a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award. 

Dr. Luna is an internationally recognized developmental neuroscientist. Her research focuses on characterizing the changes in brain function that subserved the maturation of cognition by bridging developmental psychiatry and neuroscience. Focusing on late childhood through adolescence in typical development and in neuropsychiatric disturbances—including autism, schizophrenia, and substance use—Dr. Luna’s research has continued to delineate brain circuitry underlying higher-order cognition, including networks for voluntary response suppression, spatial working memory, prototype formation, and planning of anticipated motor responses. The MERIT award recognizes Dr. Luna’s outstanding research contributions to the NIMH mission and provides the opportunity to receive up to 10 years of support for her R01 investigating developmental changes in striatal neurophysiology through adolescence. 

“When my program officer said he had to talk to me, of course, I thought the worst: possibly problems with my grant, or budget cuts. And then I got the amazing news that on the contrary, I had received a MERIT award,” said Dr. Luna. “It was a great and much-needed boost after the challenges of the pandemic. As scientists, we work so hard with our labs to build a body of work that we think is impactful, but receiving the MERIT award made me feel that this work is indeed appreciated and wanted. I am so excited to be afforded some space to really be creative with my team and take our science to the next level. I am very grateful to my lab for their hard work, and for the continued support of the Department of Psychiatry. It is an honor to join my colleagues in the Psychiatry department who are MERIT awardees, past, present, and future.”

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Luna!