Author: Roeland Hancock

Kelly Mahaffy MA receives the 2022 BIRC Excellence Award

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The BIRC is pleased to announce the third annual BIRC Excellence Award, which highlights the achievements of a student, staff, faculty member, lab, or group who has made exceptional contributions towards advancing the goals of the BIRC as outlined in the Mission Statement:

  • To facilitate scientific discovery and theoretical and methodological innovation
  • To serve as an intellectual center for interdisciplinary basic and clinical research
  • To prepare graduate students and post-doctoral fellows for careers in academia and related fields
  • To provide undergraduate students with research experience and other educational opportunities
  • To disseminate scientific knowledge to the broader university community, relevant professional communities, and the general public

The BIRC Excellence Award is awarded on an annual basis at the end of each Fall semester. Awardees are selected by BIRC staff and confirmed by the BIRC steering committee.

Congratulations to our 2022 BIRC Excellence Award honoree, Kelly Mahaffy, M.A! Kelly has a B.A. in English Literature from Truman State University, M.A. in English Literature from UConn, and is currently a PhD student in Developmental Psychology in Dr. Nicole Landi’s lab. Kelly training to run the MRI scanner to eventually provide additional scanning hours for all investigators, has led or supported MRI and EEG data collection for two pediatric studies at BIRC, trained undergraduate and graduate students in behavioral assessment and EEG, and widely disseminates her knowledge—be sure to check out her poster for great tips on running a successful pediatric MRI study next time you are at BIRC!

In Memory of Dr. Ross W. Buck

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Dr. Ross W. Buck was one of the first researchers to use BIRC and continued his work on the brain mechanisms of emotional and cognitive empathy in nonverbal communication until shortly before his death. He will be greatly missed at BIRC.

Dr. Ross W. Buck passed away peacefully in Windham Hospital on September 1, 2022. He was born on August 16, 1941 in Sewickley, PA to Ross and Ruth Buck. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Judith Buck Davis.  He leaves his wife, Marianne of 58 years; children Ross William and his children Eleanor (Al) and William Christopher of Washington, DC; Maria Lenore of Brooklyn, NY; Nancy Jenney of White Plains, MD; and Theodore Reed and his children Maya Rose and Hannah Judith of Tolland, CT. He also leaves cousins, Lynda Thill of Gibsonia, PA and Marilyn McAllister of Coraopolis, PA, sister- and brother-in law, Nancy and Howard Pears of Meadville PA, in addition to many nieces and nephews. Ross also leaves many grieving colleagues and those he often referred to as his second family, former graduate students – too many to count from his 48 years of teaching at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Although he was an amazing father to our four children, he always had room in his heart for more of his students whom he mentored.

Ross earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh and his early career included work at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine followed by appointments to Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Connecticut, where he was a Professor of Communication and Psychology. He authored four books on Communication, Emotion, Motivation, and Nonverbal Communication and numerous chapters and professional journal articles. He served as Editor of the International Society of Research on Emotion Newsletter and belonged to many professional organizations.

There will be no calling hours. A celebration of his wonderful life and career is being planned by his family and will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please wait for an announcement of suggested donations.

Obituary curtesy of Tribute Archive and Potter Funeral Home

For more information, contact: Department of Communication at (860) 486-6734

Suggest speakers for the ’22-23 talk series!

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The Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC) is soliciting your suggestions for speakers to fill remaining openings in the 2022-2023 BIRC Speaker Series. The BIRC supports research using human brain and whole-body magnetic resonance imaging, electrophysiology, and non-invasive stimulation. The past speaker series has featured renowned speakers working broadly in magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive neuroscience, and related fields. Suggestions may be submitted using this form at any time, but submissions received by July 11th will be given special consideration for the upcoming year. We welcome suggestions from all disciplines and career stages. 

As always, we are particularly interested in speakers who introduce conceptual or methodological innovations that inspire UConn researchers to explore new research directions and applications in magnetic resonance imaging, physiology, and brain stimulation, and develop interdisciplinary collaborations.

BIRC Trailblazer Awarded

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Congratulations to Margaret Briggs-Gowan, PhD, Xiaomei Cong, PhD, Todd Constable, PhD, Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD, Helen Wu, PhD, Damion Grasso, PhD on receiving the BIRC Trailblazer award for their project Preliminary Longitudinal Study of Fetal, Neonatal and Infant MRI!

This proposal will ultimately contribute important foundational knowledge in the following areas: (1) neurodevelopmental outcomes of children exposed to drugs in the prenatal stage that may be dependent on the nature, timing, and dosage of environmental insult in addition to the child’s neurobiological-genetic- genomic factors and resilience/reserve; (2) timing of opportunities and modifiable targets; and (3) assessing underlying mechanisms of substance use disorder and withdrawal symptom across mother-infant/child generations. Ultimately, research such as ours may help to optimize circuit-based precision interventions in these vulnerable children that have rapidly increased in recent years.

Second OVPR REP Awarded to BIRC Faculty!

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Congratulations to Margaret Briggs-Gowan (PI) and co-PIs Inge-Marie Eigsti, Letitia Naigles, Damion Grasso, Fumiko Hoeft, Carolyn Greene, and Brandon Goldstein on their Research Excellence Program (REP) award for Auditory threat processing in children at-risk for posttraumatic stress disorder! Their project will use ERP and fMRI methods to assess threat reactivity in young at-risk children.