Katie A. McLaughlin, Director of the Stress and Development Lab, received a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for her grant entitled: Neurodevelopmental Mechanisms Underlying Stress Vulnerability during Adolescence. According to NIMH, MERIT Awards are intended to "provide long-term stable support to investigators whose research competence and productivity are distinctly superior and who are likely to continue to perform in an outstanding manner. " The MERIT Award will provide the Stress and Development Lab with 10 years of stable funding to investigate the mechanisms underlying the strong links between exposure to stressors and the emergence of psychopathology across the transition from childhood to adolescence. We are enormously grateful to be given this opportunity.