Congratulations to the Class of 2022! I want to express my gratitude to the graduates for entering the program when many of our labs were shifting their research procedures in response to pandemic-related safety protocols. This cohort met in person for the first time in their second year of the program. Yet, they cultivated productive working relationships with faculty advisors and team members.
Each student made tremendous progress by establishing clear goals and managing complex research projects. They often created research materials from scratch and learned techniques without the direct assistance of a senior lab member. In difficult circumstances, the graduates demonstrated their tenacity, resiliency, and ability to innovate. On their behalf, I wish to thank the professors who aided their efforts and entrusted them with taking on more responsibility and autonomy than is standard for new students.
As one example of mentor support and student dedication, Linyuan (Carol) Shi describes her experience working with Dr. Josh Gulley in our Student Spotlight. Dr. Gulley and his team guided Carol’s training remotely as she mastered in vitro electrophysiology and brain slicing techniques, which were essential for their study of the impact of THC and alcohol exposure on medial prefrontal cortex functioning. In recognition of Ms. Shi’s outstanding achievements in academics, research collaboration and scholarship, and notable achievements in professional development, we are pleased to announce that she is the recipient of the department’s Graduate Award for Excellence in Psychological Science. Congratulations, Carol!
I am also happy to share the accomplishments and future directions of all our graduates!
Kyle Baacke will join the doctoral program in Psychology/Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. While at Illinois, he studied with Professors Barbey and Heller to investigate applications of an ensemble metareasoner and to improve decoding methods using fMRI data, respectively.
Anthony Greco will join the doctoral program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. While at Illinois, he studied with Dr. James Rounds to examine vocational interests and self-efficacy.
Hanxiong Guan will join the doctoral program in Marketing (Consumer Behavior track) at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. While at Illinois, he studied with Professor Dolores Albarracin and Chadly Stern to examine persuasion communications and political psychology.
Yilin (Elaine) Liu will join the doctoral program in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. While at Illinois, she studied with Professor Eva Pomerantz to investigate the influence of parental homework involvement on children’s math achievement and math anxiety.
Linyuan (Carol) Shi will join the doctoral program at Illinois in the Behavioral Neuroscience area of the Psychology Department and continue her work with Dr. Joshua Gulley, examining the effects of adolescent alcohol and THC co-use in rat models.
Simran Suresh will join The Pavilion Foundation to work as a Crisis Intake Counselor. While at Illinois, she studied with Professor Chris Fraley to examine factors, such as personality traits, that contribute to enduring attachment change. She also assisted the assessment team at the Illinois Neurobehavioral Assessment Laboratory under the guidance of Drs. Kathryn Leskis and Crystal Newman.
Chenli Wang will join the doctoral program in the Linguistics Department at Rutgers University. While at Illinois, she studied with Professor Cynthia Fisher to examine verb bias adaptation.
Yiwen Wang will join our doctoral program in the Attention and Perception area of the Psychology Department. During her Master’s study, she collaborated with Professors Alejandro Lleras and Simona Buetti to examine peripheral vision and parallel search.
Runhan (Brad) Yang will continue his study in our doctoral program in the Cognitive area, where he works with Professor Aaron Benjamin to study the effect of self-pacing on perceptual tasks.
Yaqi Xu will join the doctoral program at the University of California at Santa Cruz. While at Illinois, she studied with Professor Kara Federmeier to examine language comprehension and production.
Jingfeng (Craig) Zhang will join our doctoral program in the Cognitive area, where he will continue his work with Professor Jon Willits in the Learning and Language Lab. While at Illinois, he used built a simulation of humans in a natural environment to visualize the learning process.
Congratulations to all of our graduates!