News

Steven Kasparek, lab manager and incoming first-year doctoral student in the SD Lab, receives NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!

April 9, 2019

Both Azure Reid-Russell and Steven Kasparek, current lab managers in the Stress and Development Lab and rising first-year graduate students in clinical psychology at Harvard, have been recognized by the National Science Foundation for their applications to the Graduate Research Fellowship Program for 2019!

The NSF GRFP is a highly-competitive fellowship intended to fund promising doctoral students in STEM-related master’s and doctoral programs.

Azure's application has received honorable mention, and she will have another chance to apply in...

SD Lab coordinators accept offers for doctoral training in psychology!

April 9, 2019

Several Stress and Development Lab coordinators have accepted offers to begin doctoral training in psychology starting in the fall of 2019!

Debbie photo Debbie Bitran:

SD Lab coordinator for 4.5 years
Has accepted an offer from Jamie Hanson at...

SD Lab welcomes its newest Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Leslie Rith-Najarian

April 2, 2019

The Stress and Development Lab (PI: Dr. Katie McLaughlin), in collaboration with the Lab of Youth Mental Health (PI: Dr. John Weisz), has just hired Dr. Leslie Rith-Najarian as a joint Post-Doctoral Fellow. Leslie will be collaborating accross both labs, combining Dr. McLaughlin's expertise in childhood maltreatment and neural mechanisms research with Dr. Weisz's research in youth clinical assessment and intervention to further develop her interest in clinical translational research. You can learn more about Dr. Rith-Najarian's interests ...

SD Lab research featured in USA Today article on developmental consequences of witnessing domestic violence

January 29, 2019

Research from the Stress and Development Lab showing reduced hippocampal volume and altered hippocampal function in youth exposed to domestic violence is featured in a USA Today article detailing the neuroscience that partially explains effects of violence exposure on the social, emotional, and cognitive development of youth.

SD Lab research finds that violence in childhood leads to accelerated aging

November 5, 2018

Katie McLaughlin, Lab Director, publishes findings from SD Lab research demonstrating that violence in childhood leads to accelerated aging. University of Washington, where Dr. McLaughlin completed the study, wrote a short piece synthesizing the findings, which you can read here.

Science Direct has also published a story...

Harvard researchers, including Katie McLaughlin, Lab Director, examine evolution of emotion differentiation

September 21, 2018

Katie McLaughlin, Lab Director, and Leah Somerville, Director of the Affective Neuroscience and Development Lab collaborate on research examining the evolution of emotional differentiation. Their findings suggest that adolescents do not distinguish between negative emotions as clearly as younger children and adults. You can read more about their collaboration in the... Read more about Harvard researchers, including Katie McLaughlin, Lab Director, examine evolution of emotion differentiation

Katie McLaughlin, Lab Director, makes the 2018 Highly Cited Researchers List from Clarivate Analytics

September 5, 2018

Congratulations to Lab Director, Kate McLaughlin, who has been identified in the 2018 Highly Cited Researchers list from Clarivate Analytics. What does this mean? According to Clarivate Analytics analyses, Kate has produced multiple highly cited papers during the last decade, which are defined as those ranking in the top 1% by citations for a publication field and year. This is a tremendous accomplishment as very few researchers earn this distinction. We are all so proud of her!

Maya Rosen, postdoc in the Stress and Development Lab, receives the Developmental Science Early Career Research Prize

August 21, 2018

Maya Rosen, a postdoc in the Stress and Development Lab, receives the Developmental Science Early Career Research Prize for her paper “Salience network response to changes in emotional expressions of others is heightened during early adolescence: relevance for social functioning.” This prize is awarded to an early career stage investigator for the best paper accepted or published in Developmental Science in 2017. In this paper, Maya’s work revealed evidence of a developmental window in early adolescence when the Salience Network showed heightened activation in response to changes in...

Hilary Lambert, graduate student in the Stress and Development Lab, receives an NRSA fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health

June 12, 2018

Hilary Lambert, graduate student in the Stress and Development Lab, receives an NRSA fellowship award from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her project is entitled, "Impaired Hippocampus-Dependent Associative Learning as a Novel Mechanism Underlying PTSD." Her study will examine the role that difficulties with associative learning and differences in hippocampal function and connectivity play in the etiology of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents. Congratulations, Hilary!

Charlotte Heleniak, graduate student in the Stress and Development Lab, receives her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington

June 9, 2018

Charlotte Heleniak, a graduate student in the Stress and Development Lab, receives her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington. Her dissertation was entitled "Interpersonal Violence Exposure, Social Cognition, and Aggression." Charlotte's dissertation identified social cognitive factors, as well as differences in the neural networks that underlie social cognition, that are involved in explaining the link between violence exposure in childhood and aggressive behavior in adolescence. Congratulations to Charlotte, who is moving on to a post-doc in Nim... Read more about Charlotte Heleniak, graduate student in the Stress and Development Lab, receives her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Washington

Lab Name

Stress & Development Lab