Dr. Laurie Cutting was invited to deliver the DeHirsh Grand Rounds (“Cognitive Neuroscience of Reading Development”) at Columbia University on January 19th, 2019.

Find out more details here from Columbia University’s website:

https://www.columbia.edu/content/events/cognitive-neuroscience-reading-development

Interested in knowing how our longitudinal study of Reading Comprehension is going? Find out the same way our participants already have:

Members from the lab are set to attend and present at the conference this year!

Conference: SSSR (2019) in Toronto
Symposium Title: The interaction of domain-general mechanisms and reading development: from word to text
Chair: Katherine Aboud
Authors: Sayako Earle, Tin Nguyen, Tehil Nugiel, and Katherine Aboud
Discussant: Laurie Cutting

Abstract: Recent evidence increasingly points to domain-general processes, such as executive functions and memory, as critical to reading development. This symposium will present diverse evidence for the flexible, multi-dimensional nature of domain-general contributions to developmental reading skill, from single word reading to full texts. Specifically, the authors will discuss (1.) the dependence of reading acquisition on procedural/declarative memory, (2.) the predictive relationship of executive functions on reading fluency in complex texts, (3.) the recruitment of domain-general areas during sentence comprehension as a key predictor of intervention gains in struggling readers, and (4.) the recruitment of distinct domain-general brain networks for different text types. Each talk will speak to how non-language processes help scaffold reading ability, and will provide evidence that the presence/absence of this domain-general scaffolding is a key factor in reading outcomes across different reading processes.

Find out more about the conference here: https://www.triplesr.org/important-dates-twenty-fifth-annual-meeting

As we all know, the life of a grad or phd student is a difficult one. Much of your time is spent delicately balancing life and important research that will far outlive you. Many days and nights are spent on the edge of delirium and sleep deprivation, all to get that degree and learn a little more. One person in our lab has neared the end of this chapter of his education and we couldn’t be happier to our very own – Doctor – Stephen Kent Bailey. Although you may be leaving our lab soon, you’ll be taking our well wishes with you, along with our undying knowledge that you will continue to succeed and exceed our wildest hopes for you.

Congratulations on your accomplishment from everyone here at EBRL Dr. Bailey!

In acknowledgement of her efforts to advance the success of women in Cognitive Science, Dr. Cutting has been selected to receive a Leadership award from Women in Cognitive Science (WiCS), just prior to the start of the 2018 Psychonomic Society Meeting in New Orleans.

WiCS has instituted a Leadership Award to recognize initiatives that individuals have taken, beyond their own students and labs, to benefit women in cognitive science more broadly.

Dr. Cutting is one of two winners this year; the inaugural year of the award.

Read the full article here :

Laurie Cutting, Vanderbilt educational neuroscientist, honored with NIH Merit Award

EBRL’s own Dr. Laurie Cutting is to be awarded with the NIH Merit Award; an award created in 1986 designed to create long-term funding support to particularly outstanding investigators. Unlike most grant awards, the MERIT award cannot be applied for by the investigator, meaning only the most distinctly outstanding researchers are awarded it.

As reported in the article above: “(Dr.)…Cutting is among only 33 Vanderbilt researchers to have received an NIH Merit Award, and one of only 5 women.”

The annual Vanderbilt Brain Institute (VBI) Retreat was held on September 27th, 2018, and EBRL’s graduate student’s presence definitely could be felt!  The annual gathering was host to a wide range of students in the field and excellent research from a variety of different laboratories to share ideas, promote collaboration, and celebrate a joy for research. Discussions were lively and poster sessions were survived.

In the end, EBRL is proud to say that our own Laurie Cutting and Katherine Aboud both walked away with awards!

Laurie Cutting was awarded with Best Mentor

and

Katherine Aboud was awarded with:

Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Outstanding Neuroscience Research, Vanderbilt Brain Institute (2018)

AND

Best Oral Presentation, Vanderbilt Brain Institute (2018)!

Congratulations to you both!!