November 04, 2009

Contact:   Bill Giduz

Dickson Professor Julio Ramirez

The two leading associations for psychology have both recently honored a Davidson professor by electing him as a "Fellow" of their organizations.

Dickson Professor Julio Ramirez, founder and director of the college's neuroscience program, was named a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) and of the American Psychological Association (APA). In both organizations the designation recognizes outstanding and sustained contributions to the science of psychology through research, teaching, and service.

Psychology is one of just a few academic disciplines with fellows programs, and several Davidson faculty in that department have received the recognition. Professor Kristi Multhaup and Maddrey Professor Ruth Ault are also APA Fellows, and Watson Professor Ed Palmer is a Fellow of the APS. The APS named about 250 new Fellows worldwide this year.

Ramirez said, "When I look at the list of colleagues who are fellows, I am humbled by the honor."

Ramirez, who joined the Davidson faculty in 1986, has been conducting research for about 30 years on recovery of memory function through neuronal sprouting following brain injury. His work has involved more than 100 Davidson students as research assistants, and resulted in dozens of articles in scientific journals, many of which were coauthored by his students. His research and teaching have been supported by major grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

His laboratory in the basement of Watson Science Building is a seat of full-time scientific inquiry at Davidson. The funding he has received finances the work of two 2009 graduates, Mercedes Robinson and Lara Moody. Those two, along with Cheli Bleda '10 and Devin Haddad '10, are presenting some of their recent work at the annual Society of Neuroscience meeting in Chicago this month.

Though he has held membership in both organizations that honored him, his professional activities have been focused on other organizations.

Ramirez served as founding president in 1991 of the Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience, and was previously named as a Fellow of that organization. In 2004 Ramirez cofounded with biology department colleague Barbara Lom the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education. He founded and has directed for the past six years the nationwide SOMAS grants program (www.somasprogram.org) that promotes the integration of teaching and neuroscience research at predominantly undergraduate institutions.

He served last fall as one of 120 participants invited by the APA to participate in a leadership conference about the future of scholarship dissemination. In addition, he served the APS by co-organizing its Festschrift for noted psychologist Donald Stein.

Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,800 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
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