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The University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Psychology was recently ranked as the top public university in the National Research Council Raking of Graduate programs.

Given the talent of the faculty and staff and the caliber of the education and research enterprise, it’s hard not to see why the program continues to garner acclaim and accolades.

Here’s some of the department’s latest awards and honors:

Professor Patricia Devine

Psychology Chair elected President of national society

Psychology Professor and Department Chair Patricia Devine has been elected President of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.

With more than 6,000 members, the society is the largest organization of social and personality psychologists in the world.

The society fosters scientific research by publishing scientific journals, organizing an annual conference and maintaining close ties with science advocacy offices in the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science.

Assistant Professor Vanessa Simmering

Assistant Professor Vanessa Simmering (Psychology) has received the 2010 University of Iowa DC Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize for Social Sciences, recognizing excellence in doctoral research.

Simmering’s dissertation -“Developing a magic number: the dynamic  field theory explains why visual working memory capacity estimates  differ across tasks and development” – was chosen as the best,  representing highly original work that makes an unusually significant  contribution to her field.

As award recipient, Simmering was honored  with a $2,500 cash prize and becomes the University of Iowa’s nominee for  the Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International  Distinguished Dissertation Award.

Gernsbacher has receives Culture of Service Award

Dr. Morton Gernsbacher

Vilas Research Professor Morton Gernsbacher has received the American Psychological Association 2010 Culture of Service Award.

The award letter noted she “is being honored for the leadership roles you have taken in psychological science organizations and as an editor of psychological journals. Further, your mentorship of many students and colleagues, your involvement in grant reviewing, your advocacy for psychological science with state and federal policymakers, and your activities promoting the value of by psychological science in the media all stand out as major contributions to the field.”

The award will be presented at the APA Science Leadership Conference in November 2010 in Washington, DC and will be announced in upcoming issue of the APA Science Directorate’s Psychological Science Agenda newsletter.

Graduate students take top  honors in national fellowships, awards

Graduate students Jamie Hanson and Christine Moberg have both been awarded Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellowships.

The aim of these competitive grants is to encourage dissertations that include components of population health broadly defined, such as addressing the multiple determinants of health and their important interactions over the life course; examining the measurement, distribution, or experiences of health; or evaluating interventions (at individual, community, or policy levels) for their impact on population health outcomes.

Graduate students Kathryn Hefner and Jesse Kaye, have just been awarded a Developmental Research Grant from the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, totaling $30,000.

Their project is titled “Predicting Quit Success: Physiological Measures and Real-World Experiences of Negative Affect During Nicotine Withdrawal.”

Last, congratulations to graduate students Dan Grupe and Sarah Romens.

Grupe is the recipient of the 2010 Ann E. Kelley Fellowship Behavioral Neuroscience Travel Award and Romens has been awarded a Ruth L. Kirchstein National Research Service Award from the NIH for her work titled “Early Chronic Stress and Development of Depression: Mechanisms of Risk”, and sponsored by Professor Seth Pollak.