The Academic Minute for 2016.11.14-11.18

Academic Minute from 11.14 – 11.18

Monday, November 14th
Ed Hirt – Indiana University
Self-Sabotage
Ed Hirt is a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington.As a researcher, Hirt is interested in issues related to motivation and performance, including how mental depletion can negatively impact performance and reduce self-control. He is also interested in the phenomenon of self-handicapping, or “self-sabotage,” specifically looking at the ways in which people sabotage their own performance by embracing handicaps which can later serve as viable excuses for poor performance. Recently, he published a study in the journal Experimental Social Psychology finding people are more likely to self-handicap during their hours of “peak-performance,” with night people more likely to self-handicap at night and morning people more likely to self-handicap in the morning.

Tuesday, November 15th
Shawn Bishop – Technical University of Munich
Supernova Ashes and an Extinction Event
Started out his scientific career a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Specifically, he hails from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and obtained his B.Sc. degree at McMaster University.  Hearing the call of the west, he then attended the University of Victoria, British Columbia, for his M.Sc. in particle physics. Needing a change, he then went to Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, for his Ph.D. in experimental nuclear astrophysics. The west continued calling, it seems, because from Vancouver he flew westward to Japan, and did his postdoctoral work at the RIKEN (http://www.riken.jp/en/) national laboratory, continuing in experimental nuclear astrophysics. Completing the whirlwind tour of the globe, he landed in Munich, Germany in fall 2008, where he has been since, continuing in experimental nuclear astrophysics, inspiring incoming physics students, and using a laboratory just 200 m from his own office, and plumbing the depths of the Pacific Ocean to discovery the traces of supernova on our planet.

Wednesday, November 16th
Mitch Prinstein – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
All the Cool Kids Aren’t Doing It
Mitch Prinstein is the John Van Seters Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, and a member of the Clinical Psychology Program. Mitch’s research uses a developmental psychopathology framework to understand how adolescents’ interpersonal experiences, particularly among peers,  are associated with depression, self-injury, and health risk behaviors.  Mitch’s work has two areas of focus.

1) Interpersonal-Cognitive-Biological Models of Adolescent Depression and Self-Injury

2) Peer Influence and Adolescent Health Risk Behaviors

Dr. Prinstein also maintains a long-standing commitment to professional development in psychology.

Thursday, November 17th
Lewis Davis – Union College
Climate Culture and Economic Development
Lewis Davis is a Professor of Economics at Union College, where he teaches courses that investigate how economics interacts with culture, politics and ethics.  His research addresses a broad range of topics, including economic growth, income inequality, political economy, intellectual property rights, individualism, social solidarity and envy.  Prof. Davis has over twenty peer-reviewed and edited articles, with recent publications in the Journal of Economic Growth, European Economic Review, and the Journal of Comparative Economics.  Prof. Davis serves on the editorial boards of the Eastern Economic Journal and the Review of Economics and Institutions.  Prof. Davis has a PhD in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in Mathematics from Davidson College.

Friday, November 18th
Laura Sonter – University of Vermont
Nature and Selfies
Laura is a post-doctoral research associate at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics. Her research seeks to understand global drivers of land use change and their impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Currently she is interested in quantifying and simulating the impacts of land use and climate change on the provision and economic value of ecosystem services provided by the northern forests of New England. Laura also has extensive experience working on mining-induced land use change in both Australia and Brazil. In her spare time she enjoys hiking and traveling. For more information please see Laura’s personal website: www.laurasonter.com or email her at the address listed above.

She is currently a post-doctoral associate at the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics at the University of Vermont. Her research will explore how land use, climate change and management interventions affect forest-related ecosystem services in New England.