Gordon Burghardt, a professor of psychology, is quoted in the July/August issue of Monitor on Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association. In the article, “What’s fun for a wasp?,” Burghardt provides a definition of animal play. The article features particular discussion of wasps and is based on a recent study published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, a journal edited by Burkhardt.
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Bill Dockery, coordinator of research communications in the UT Office of Research, will receive a 2009 Spirit of ADA Award for advocacy. The disABILITY Resource Center will honor Dockery and six other individuals and three businesses at a breakfast celebration Friday, July 24, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The disABILITY Resource Center recognizes people and organizations annually who “go above and beyond the civil rights protections afforded by the Americans with Disabilities Act, hence empowering people with disabilities to live independent lives within our community.”
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Dr. Andrew Howe; Esra Turan, Ph.D. candidate in UT Knoxville’s Department of Statistics, Operations, and Management Science; and Dr. Eylem Deniz Akinci, visiting assistant professor from Istanbul, Turkey, are among 11 teams participating in the Young Researchers Award Prize sponsored by SAS Institute of Italy. The competition is open to young researchers worldwide. The competition promotes and transfers novel scientific development and knowledge through the real-world application of data-mining principles. The first-place winner receives $5,600; the second-place winner receives $2,100. Winners will present their work at the University of Catania (Italy) in September 2009. All individuals in the team are working with Professor Hamparsum Bozdogan, Toby & Brenda McKenzie Professor in the statistics, operations and management science department.
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Two UT Knoxville psychology graduate students, Laura Widman and Ellen Harvey Williams, have received 2008 American Psychological Association Dissertation Research Awards, which provide support of $1,000 for costs associated with the dissertation.