SAN BERNARDINO Cynthia Crawford, a professor of psychology at Cal State San Bernardino, has been named the recipient of the 2015 California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology.

Crawford, who has been at CSUSB since 1996, received the award for her research, publication and support for student researchers.

“I am honored to win this award. It is very gratifying to be recognized by peers in the CSU system,” she said.

Crawford is also the recipient of the 2014 CSUSB Outstanding Professor award.

She is an authority in the use of animal models to study addiction and has published more than 65 papers in prestigious journals, such as “Neuroscience,” “Behavioral Brain Research,” “Hippocampus,” “Synapse,” “Psychopharmacology,” “Brain Research,” “Developmental Neuroscience” and “Behavioral Neuroscience.”

She was also praised for including her students in her research. Student authors appear on her publications more than 100 times.

Crawford secured NIH funding for the CSUSB Diversity Drug Abuse Research Program and the Minority Drug Abuse Research Program, serving as director for each, as well as being associate director of the university’s Minority Access to Research Careers Program.

Crawford has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. She received her master’s and doctoral degrees, both in behavioral and neural studies, from the University of Kentucky.