Two assistant professors in the IU Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences have received recognition from the Association for Psychological Science.
Franco Pestilli, a computational neuroscientist, and Cara Lewis, a clinical psychologist, were honored by the association regarded as “the premier international organization in its field” of psychological sciences, according to an IU press release, for early career contributions in their respective fields.
The Association for Psychological Science recognizes members who make such contributions, according to the release.
Pestilli, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences, won the 2016 Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions. He began working at IU in 2015 after first serving as a research associate at Stanford University.
In his research, Pestilli has used state-of-the-art neuroimaging and computational approaches in reconstructing white-matter connections in the human brain. This research has allowed Pestilli and colleagues to identify a new white-matter connection in the visual cortex.
Pestilli and an international team of researchers had their work on this connection published last year in the journal “Cerebral Cortex” after the team revealed an unknown part of the brain not found in any current anatomy textbooks.
This part of the brain, called the vertical occipital fasciculus, was once studied at the end of the 19th century and assists in the identification of objects, words and faces, according to an additional IU press release.
Brian Wandell, a professor of psychology at Stanford, said in the release that Pestilli’s work cuts across many different fields of psychology, such as attention, visual perception and cognitive neuroscience.
“His careful quantitative approach to measurement and thoughtful interpretation of data using modeling represents the highest level of rigor,” Wandell said in the release. “His work is, moreover, helping us rethink basic assumptions about the neural basis of cognition and how we conceive of the networks of attention.”
Pestilli’s research has also shed light on the mechanisms of human attention and how visual attention affects humans’ views of the world. His recent work in connectivity is being used to create profiles of individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.
“Pestilli’s scientific style is that of an integrative thinker who also has the nuts-and-bolts skills and the persistence to find a way forward in uncharted territory,” distinguished professor Olaf Sporns said in the release. “I am delighted that he is now my faculty colleague here at IU, and I am sure he will become a major leader in the psychological science of the 21st century.”
Lewis, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, was designated a 2016 Association for Psychological Science Rising Star.
Lewis was nominated by two distinguished fellows within the association. She is the president of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration, and a co-chair on the Association for Psychological Science’s committee for development of a division of implementation science, according to the release.
“It’s an incredible honor to be recognized in this way on such a large stage,” Lewis said. “To be held in high regard among the association is an incredible honor.”
Working primarily with mental health agencies, Lewis is a clinical psychologist and researcher of implementation science. She has been working within this field to develop better treatments for those suffering from mental illness.
Lewis’ work in implementation science is helping transform community mental health care from a local to national level, professor Brian D’Onofrio said in the release.
“Guided and informed by rigorous theory and the basic science of human behavior, her research draws on knowledge from basic psychological science in learning, cognition, motivation, personality and group processes, and applies it to real-world settings,” D’Onofrio said in the release. “This translational focus requires enormous interpersonal skills, social awareness and understanding to navigate between two disparate professions — researchers and community clinicians.”
Lewis recently received two grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling nearly $3 million to fund efforts to bring evidence-based mental health treatment into community mental health centers.
“Lewis’ research and leadership place her at the heart of the new subdiscipline of dissemination and implementation science,” psychology department chair William Hetrick said in the release. “She tackles pressing questions about therapy and addresses major impediments to the translation of evidence-based practices to real-world settings.”
Lewis said she hopes this recognition will bring more attention to her research team’s focus area. She attributed her designation as a rising star to excellent mentorship and teamwork within her field of research.
“The ideas I propose are not typically my own, but the product of an incredible team,” Lewis said.