​Nilanjana “Buju” Dasgupta, psychological and brain sciences and director of the College of Natural Sciences’ faculty equity and inclusion initiative, recently gave a distinguished lecture at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va., as a guest of the agency’s directorate of social, behavioral, and economic sciences.

Dasgupta’s research has focused in part on understanding the subtle ways in which stereotypes influence young peoples’ choices of academic majors and careers and identifying how to change them. In particular, she focuses on girls and women who have full potential to succeed in careers in science, technology, and engineering, and why they may choose not to pursue such careers.

Congratulations to Fiona Ge, a fourth-year student in the Social Psychology Program working with Dr. Paula Pietromonaco, on being awarded the first annual Keith Rayner Memorial Graduate Student Research Award.

Fiona's project, Cultural Differences in Communication and Consequences for Romantic Relationship Quality, rose to the top of many high-quality submissions reviewed by the Graduate Studies Committee. Fiona's study has implications for identifying culture-specific communication strategies that promote better relationship functioning, thereby informing interventions that can be tailored to couples from different cultural backgrounds.