Awards

2023

Aqsa Shahid - 2nd Place in the Neuroscience Stream at the Sydney Postgraduate Psychology Conference

Tayla McCutcheon - Best Basic Science Poster Prize at the Tow Awards.

2021

Sylvia Harmon-Jones - Best Oral Presentation by a Student at Biological Psychiatry Australia ($250).

Sylvia Harmon-Jones - Postgraduate Research Council Student Award.

2019

Sylvia Harmon-Jones - University Medal for Psychology (2018 class).

Anthea Stylianakis, Sylvia Harmon-Jones, and Kelsey Zimmermann - NIH/Sackler Travel award to attend the annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (in Chicago); $900.

Sylvia Harmon-Jones - School Prize for her performance in the School of Psychology’s Postgrad Research Competition ($1500).

Gabrielle King - George Paxinos Neuroscience PhD Prize in 2018 ($1000).

Kathryn Baker and Kelsey Zimmermann - Selected to participate in the 2019 UNSW Women in Maths and Science Champions Program in the Early Career Scientist cohort. Over the next year of this leadership and development program Kelsey and Kathryn will participate in outreach activities which aim to encourage and inspire girls and women to pursue a career in maths and science.

2018

Nadia Shnier – the University Medal for Psychology (2017 class).

Anthea Stylianakis – Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research ($1000).

Sylvia Harmon-Jones – The Joseph P Forgas Third Year Prize (for social psychology; in 2017).

Caitlin Cowan – the 2018 Dissertation Award from the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (for thesis submitted in 2017); $700.

Sarah Altmann – NIH/Sackler Travel award to attend the annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (in San Diego); $900.

Nathalie Elliott ($2000), Sarah Altmann ($1000), and Madelyne Bisby ($1000) for their performance in the School of Psychology’s Postgrad Research Competition.

Sarah Altmann – first runner-up for the 2018 Malcolm Macmillan Prize from the Board of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association (ACPA).

Sylvia Harmon-Jones – Australian Psychological Society Prize and the Syd Lovibond Prize, both for the Honours class of 2018.

2017

Nadia Shnier – the Undergraduate Behavioural Neuroscience Prize as well as the School of Psychology 3rd Year Staff Prize.

Kathryn Baker – Travel award (US$1053) to attend the Amygdala Function in Emotion, Cognition & Disease (Gordon Research Conference)

Madelyne Bisby – Travel Award ($1000USD, funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Wiley, the Sackler Institute, and the Nurture Science Project at Columbia University) to attend the annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology in Washington DC.

Gabrielle King – Travel Award (1000 euros) to attend the 3rd International Symposium on Resilience Research in Mainz Germany.

Madelyne Bisby – 2nd prize ($3000) at the Faculty of Science’s Research Competition (i.e., 1 Minute Speed Thesis Competition).

Gabrielle King – 1st prize ($5000) at the Faculty of Science’s Research Competition (i.e., 1 Minute Speed Thesis Competition).

Caitlin Cowan – 2017 Award for Excellent PhD Thesis in Psychology from the Australian Psychological Society.

Gabrielle King – Best Clinical Talk at the Sydney Psychology Postgraduate Conference ($500).

Nadia Shnier – Syd Lovibond Prize for best overall performance by a students in the Bachelor of Psychology program.

Caitlin Cowan – George Paxinos Neuroscience PhD Prize in 2017 ($1000).

2016

Miri Den – Combined PhD/Clinical MA Prize from the School of Psychology as well as the UNSW Student Prize for the Clinical College of the APS (CCLP).

Kathryn Baker – Kucharski Young Investigator Award from the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology.

Sarah Altmann – $2000 from the School of Psychology for her performance in the Faculty of Science’s Postgraduate Research Competition.

Nathalie Elliott – $2000 from the School of Psychology for her performance in the Faculty of Science’s Postgraduate Research Competition.

Kathryn Baker – a Travel Award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry. This award consists of $2000(US) for the 2017 meeting of the Society (in San Diego) as well as a waiver of registration fees for 2017-2019.

Caitlin Cowan, Janice Kan, Nathalie Elliott, Sarah Altmann, Sarah Bae, and Kathryn Baker – Travel Awards to attend the 2016 annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology (San Diego). The Award consists of $1200(US) to each awardee, and is funded by NIH, Wiley Press, the Sackler Institute, and the Nurture Science Project at Columbia University.

Kathryn Baker – Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council; the grant will start in 2017.

Kelsey Zimmermann – Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship from the American Australian Association; the Fellowship will begin in 2017.

2015

Sarah Altmann – the University Medal for Psychology, the Australian Psychological Society Prize, the Syd Lovibond Prize, and the Outstanding Behavioural Neuroscience Honours Thesis Prize, all for the class of 2014. In addition to receiving an APA to continue her post-graduate studies, Sarah has been awarded a prestigious UNSW Research Excellence Award.

Sarah Bae – the Faculty of Science Prize for Science Honours in 2014.

Caitlin Cowan and Janice Kan – 1st Prize Award ($2000) from the School of Psychology for their performance in the Faculty of Science’s Postgraduate Research Competition

2014

Miri Den – Best Student Presentation at the AACBT meeting in Freemantle.

Kathryn Baker – CI on her first NHMRC Project grant (funded 2015-2017; entitled “A window of vulnerability: Impaired fear inhibition in adolescent rats”).

Bridget Callaghan – CJ Martin Fellowship from NHMRC entitled “Human neural development in the absence of species-expected stimuli: The effect of maternal or social deprivation on maturation of emotion circuitry during critical periods of development.” Bridget will spend the first two years of her Fellowship at Columbia University in New York City and the last two years of the Fellowship in Melbourne.

Caitlin Cowan – Brain Sciences Best poster award (runner-up) – $250.

Caitlin Cowan – 2nd Prize Award ($3000) in the Faculty of Science’s Postgrad Research Competition.

Diana Chan – 1st Prize Award ($3000) from the School of Psychology for her performance in the Faculty’s Science’s Postgrad Research Competition.

Bridget Callaghan – ISDP Dissertation Prize.

Kathryn Baker, Caitlin Cowan, Janice Kan, and Diana Chan – Travel Awards to attend the annual meeting of the International Society for Developmental Psychobiology in Washington DC later this year. Each award is worth $800 and was funded by a National Institute of Health Travel grant, the Sackler Institute, and ISDP.

Kathryn Baker – selected to attend the European FENS-SfN Summer School 2014 “Neurodevelopmental Psychiatric Disorders” (in Bertinoro, Italy), and for being selected for a FENS-IBRO Travel Grant (Euro $750) to attend the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies Forum.

Kathryn Baker – Faculty of Science Research Grant – Neural mechanisms of impaired fear inhibition in adolescence ($5000)

2013

Kathryn Baker – Peter Doherty – Australian Biomedical Fellowship from NHMRC for her project entitled “How is fear inhibited in the adolescent brain”. This Fellowship will provide support for Kathryn’s work for the next 4 years.

Caitlin Cowan – was selected for two prestigious awards, both of which are only available to University Medallists. The first is the highly prestigious Petre Foundation Scholarship at UNSW for 2013. This scholarship is funded by a generous donation from the Petre Foundation and is awarded once every three years. As noted on the University’s link for this Scholarship, it is intended “to foster the advanced education of students who aspire to contribute to the betterment of mankind without particular regard for their own personal or commercial gain”. The second is a Research Excellence Award from UNSW, which is given to students of outstanding research potential. Caitlin has enrolled in the combined PhD/Clinical MA program, and will be pursuing her research on ameliorating the effects of early life adversity on emotional regulation systems.

Gabrielle King – Australian Psychological Society Honours Prize – for the highest mark in Honours in Psychology at UNSW, and being awarded the Behavioural Neuroscience Honours Thesis Prize – for the best honours thesis in the field of behavioural neuroscience at UNSW.

2012

Dr Stella Li - first author of a paper selected for the D. G. Marquis Behavioral Neuroscience Award for 2012. This awarded is sponsored by the American Psychological Association, and as noted on their website “is given each year to recognize the best paper published in Behavioral Neuroscience”. This award is selected by the Editor and Consulting Editors of Behavioral Neuroscience. Her paper was entitled “Differential Involvement of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex in the Expression of Learned Fear Across Development,” and was co-authored with Dr Jee Hyun Kim and Professor Rick Richardson.

Janice Kan – Syd Lovibond Prize for being the top student in the Bachelor of Psychology degree.

Diana Chan – Faculty of Science Prize for best Honours performance.

Caitlin Cowan – Australian Psychological Society Prize and the Outstanding Behavioural Neuroscience Honours thesis prize from the School of Psychology.

Gabrielle King – Undergraduate Behavioural Neuroscience Prize – for the highest average mark in undergraduate behavioural neuroscience subjects in the School of Psychology.