Social sciences dean Barbara Dosher elected to National Academy of Sciences
UCI faculty now boasts 26 members of the prestigious organization.
Barbara Dosher, dean of UC Irvine’s School of Social Sciences and professor of cognitive sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, an honor considered one of the highest in scientific research. She’s one of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates being recognized by the prestigious academy this year for their distinguished and continuing achievements in research.
UCI Distinguished Professor and NAS member R. Duncan Luce said, “It’s a miracle – to my mind – that someone could do administrative work at the level she does and continue to do fine research. It’s a most justified award.”
Donald G. Saari, also a UCI Distinguished Professor and NAS member, agreed: “We’re all very excited about Barbara’s election to the academy. It’s a very richly deserved honor.”
Also a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and the Association for Psychological Science, Dosher is known widely for her research on attention, perceptual learning and memory. Her current work, funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Eye Institute, focuses on attention and visual processes and how training may improve performance. In May 2009, she was elected to a four-year term on the board of directors of the Vision Sciences Society.
Dosher received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC San Diego and master’s and doctoral degrees in experimental psychology from the University of Oregon. She was a professor of psychology at Columbia University for 15 years before joining the UCI faculty in 1992.
NAS membership now totals 2,113, including 26 from UCI – six of them professors in the School of Social Sciences. Those previously elected to the academy include John Avise, Francisco J. Ayala, Michael Cahalan, Michael Clegg, William Daughaday, Greg Duncan, Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, Zachary Fisk, Anthony James, Elizabeth Loftus, James McGaugh, Ricardo Miledi, Masayasu Nomura, Larry Overman, Peter Rentzepis, A. Kimball Romney, Irwin A. Rose, F. Sherwood Rowland, Brian Skyrms, George Sperling and Susan Trumbore.
In addition, UCI Chancellor Emeritus Ralph J. Cicerone is the current NAS president (and a member).
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