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(l. to r.) Catherine Franssen, Kelly Lambert, Alexandra Rhone, Jordan Huber, Caitlin Blake, Massimo Bardi, Zeke Hampton. |
R-MC Professor Kelly Lambert, the Macon and Joan Brock Professor in Psychology, attended the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (IBNS) meeting June 8-13, 2010 in Sardinia, Italy. R-MC Professor Catherine Franssen, a National Science Foundation research/teaching post doctorate fellow, also attended the meeting, as did three recent R-MC graduates: Jordan Huber ’10, Alexandra Rhone ’10 and Caitlin Blake ’10. The meeting brought together scientists with interests in the broad area of understanding the neural control of behavior.
The program included lectures and poster sessions. Lambert presented
Prehistoric Prozac: Examining the neurobiological constituents of adaptive coping strategies and effort-driven reward training in Long-Evans rats. In addition, Huber, Rhone and Blake presented their research. Huber and Rhone presented their Schapiro Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) projects, which they conducted in summer 2009, and Blake presented her year-long senior project. Huber’s project investigated the effects of a natural environment on the brain. Rhone’s project focused on building resilience with adaptive coping strategies and Blake’s project focused on the effects of rough-and-tumble play on focused attention and brain responses in a learning task.
“The students did a great job presenting their work,” says Lambert, who was named the Macon and Joan Brock Professor in Psychology at R-MC in 2008. “In fact, the Society has a poster competition for graduate students and, accidentally, my undergraduate students were included in the running. “All students were interviewed by some of the best neuroscientists in the country. I was thrilled when, at the banquet, they announced that Alexandra Rhone had won first place. This is an enormous accomplishment for an undergraduate student.”
Also attending the meeting were Massimo Bardi, a visiting scientist from Marshall University, and Zeke Hampton, who earned his undergraduate degree from UVA and his master’s degree from Marshall University. Hampton is currently serving as a research technician at R-MC. Bardi is an anthropologist who completed his postdoctoral training in behavioral neuroscience. He began collaborating with the R-MC lab when he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Richmond and he is visiting the R-MC laboratory this summer, lending his expertise with micro-sequencing of rodent behavior and analysis of stress hormones.
Lambert earned her B.A. from Samford University and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. She joined the faculty at R-MC in 1989 and is chair of the department of psychology and co-director of the SURF program. In 2007, she was awarded the Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Professor Award at R-MC and in 2001 she received the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. In 2008, Lambert was named the Virginia Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). In January 2009, she began a two-year term as president of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society.
In addition, Lambert is the author of
Lifting Depression: A Neuroscientist’s Hands-On Approach to Activating Your Brain’s Healing Power (Basic Books 2008). The second edition of
Lambert’s Clinical Neuroscience (Oxford University Press, with co-author Craig Kinsley) will be released in early 2011. Her newest book, tentatively titled
Whisker Wisdom: Life Lessons from Resilient Rodents (Perigee Books), will be released summer 2011.