The Greater Good Science Center offers annual fellowships to UC Berkeley Undergraduate and Graduate students whose work relates to the Center's mission. The Fellowship program aims to attract scholars from across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, with a particular focus on the social-behavioral sciences.
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Mario Aceves
A Bay Area native, Mario Aceves is completing his graduate studies in
Psychology. Prior to his work at Berkeley, Mario provided educational
services for children diagnosed with autism and other developmental
disabilities. Mario is examining how parents pass down knowledge and
attitudes about mental illness to their children through a series of
experimental and observational studies. This line of research will
influence early intervention programs
intended to promote understanding and compassion while simultaneously
preventing the development of stigmatizing attitudes towards mental
illness.
Annaliese Beery
Annaliese Beery, a neuroscientist, is happy to be back in her hometown after a few years in Hawaii as a high school biology, chemistry, and AP environmental science teacher. Annaliese is a Williams College graduate and a former software engineer. Annaliese is doing highly innovative research to further understanding of positive social behavior by studying non-sexual social relationships and the neuropeptide oxytocin, which is implicated in maternal bonding, monogamy, and social recognition.
Sarah Garrett
Sarah Garrett, a sociologist, grew up in Sacramento, CA. She did her undergraduate work at UC San Diego, where she majored in sociology and French literature. Before coming to Berkeley, Sarah worked in Washington, DC, at a non-profit social science research center studying positive parent-youth relationships, adolescent social development and, more generally, child and youth thriving. This year Sarah will be studying trends and demographics in subjective well-being in American youth as well as the connection between subjective well-being and altruism. Applied, her findings will recommend more effective ways for families, schools, and community programs to foster prosociality in youth.
Donna Howe
Donna Howe is a psychology major entering her senior year. From Placerville, CA, Donna spends a lot of time working with kids and teens; at Berkeley, she coordinates a youth mentorship program that matches Cal mentors with high school students from Oakland. Her research investigates how self-esteem and group identity relate to well-being among immigrant women. Her hypothesis is that perhaps it is not an individualistic, “I can accomplish things myself” style of self-esteem that correlates best with well-being (and reduced likelihood of depression), as is often assumed, but rather a style of self-esteem that involves feeling socially connected as a valuable community member.
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In partnership with several top-tier labs, the GGSC pursues cutting-edge research initiatives related to the social and biological roots of positive emotion. This year the GGSC has awarded its own research fellowship to Sarina Rodrigues.
Sarina Rodrigues
Dr. Sarina Rodrigues is a neuroscientist whose expertise centers on emotional processing in the brain. She received her BS from the University of Oregon, where she completed an honors thesis with Michael Posner, an eminent researcher in the field of attention. Dr. Rodrigues went on to receive her Ph.D. from New York University under the mentorship of Joseph LeDoux, a pioneer in the field of emotion research. After completing her doctoral degree, Sarina joined a team of neuroscientists and psychiatrists at Columbia University where she designed and executed postmortem and neuroimaging studies of the human amygdala in order to better understand the neurobiology of depression. Dr. Rodrigues then became a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University under the guidance of Robert Sapolsky, whose seminal work has discovered how stress hormones impact social hierarchies, personalities, immunity, and the brain. Often praised as one of the finest scientific writers of our time, Dr. Sapolsky has authored many books including including Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers and A Primate's Memoir. Dr. Rodrigues’ outstanding mentorship has given her strong background on the neural mechanisms of emotion and how they influence the body and behavior. Moreover, her education has allowed her to participate in many multidisciplinary classes and conferences aimed at merging theories and beliefs in science, psychology, philosophy, theology, sociology, and anthropology. We are fortunate that Dr. Rodrigues has decided to shift her research towards investigation of the neurobiology of positive emotions. “My goals completely align with the Greater Good Science Center’s initiative to illuminate the roots and development of social well-being,” writes Dr. Rodrigues. “This type of research will help people understand how to live happier and healthier lives.”
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The GGSC also supports the research of two other postdoctoral scientists at UC Berkeley whose work is well-aligned with our mission. Emily Impett, who studies relationships and health, provides the essential strategic and statistical forte needed to further ongoing work involving complex longitudinal measures and otherwise multifaceted data. Emiliana Simon-Thomas studies nervous system activation and processing related to discrete positive emotions with an emphasis on characterizing prosocial emotions like compassion, awe, and love.
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