2021 - 2022 Academic Year

Rebecca Bennett - NSERC (Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship) 2021 and Dean’s Excellence Award (SGS) 2021

Alexandre Burke - NSERC CGS-M scholarship

Sydney Collins - NSERC PGS-D Award

Laura Couturier - Janeway Foundation Research Trainee Award 2021-2022

Mark Corrigan - Dr. Doris M. Babstock Memorial Scholarship for academic merit 

Leigh Dunn - Eating Disorder Foundation of NL Renata Elizabeth Withers Memorial Scholarship for Eating Disorder Research (2022) 

Olivia Dutton - Deans Doctoral Award (SGS)

Nicole Eddy - F.A. Aldrich Fellowship and Dr. Leonard Lye Graduate Award for Volunteer and Community Service

S M Nageeb Hasan - IBRO Travel award for the 15th Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, 2022

Meagan Hinks - 2022 Aldrich Conference – Best Poster

Emily Hogan - The Graduate Psychology Society Award in Community Excellence

Samlau Kutana - Cancer Research Training Program award from the Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute (BHCRI) 

Chelsea Lahey - Best 10-minute presentation at the Health Professions Educational Scholarship (HPES) Forum, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University, Nov. 23, 2022 

Chris Lively - The Graduate Psychology Society Award in Academic Excellence 

Yellow Martin - 2021 Aldrich Conference – Best Poster

Sarita Pellowe - MITACs Accelerate Award 

Brandon Richardson - CGS-M scholarship with CIHR (2021-22) and Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (CGS-M)

2020 - 2021 Academic Year

Lindsay-Ann Bellows won the Renata Withers Memorial Scholarship from the Eating Disorder Foundation of NL.

Dalainey Drakes received a 2020-2021 ARC-NL Masters Graduate Fellowship, Aging Research Centre of Newfoundland.

Iain Gamba was awarded the CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's 2020-2021 (declined)

Victoria Kavanagh was awarded the GSU Award in Teaching Excellence

Jessika Lamarre was awarded an Ocean Frontier Institute Seed Grant.

Chris Lively was awarded the Ms. Carole Solberg and Dr. John Hoddinott Graduate Teaching Award and the Professional Development Award for Per Course Instructors, Memorial University

Yellow Martin won the Society for Behavioural Neuroendocrinology Welcome Initiative Award, and the Society for Neuroscience Trainee Professional Development Award. She was also awarded the Graduate Student Union Excellence in Teaching Award

Anastasia Mekhael was awarded the CIHR Canadian Graduate Scholarship – Masters Award

Stephanie Salia won the Society for Behavioural Neuroendocrinology Welcome Initiative Award and the Society for Neuroscience Trainee Professional Development Award

Samantha Scurrey (2020) Renata Elizabeth Withers Memorial Scholarship. Eating Disorders Foundation of NL

The following students have been awarded Tri-council CGS-Ms for next year (2021-2022):

CIHR (Narissa Byers, Brandon Richardson)
NSERC (Alexander Burke, Rebecca Bennett)
SSHRC (Madeline Morris)

Chris Lively won the Graduate Psychology Society Award in Academic Excellence

Emily Hogan won a SSHRC Master's Canada Graduate Scholarship and The Graduate Psychology Society Award in Community Excellence

Chris Clark presented the Best Talk at Research Day.  The runner-up was Molly Macmillan

2019 - 2020 Academic Year

Lindsay-Ann Bellows won a Janeway Trainee Research Award and a SSHRC Master's Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Dalainey Drakes received the 2019 Peter Mackey Memorial Graduate Scholarship.

Leigh Dunn won a 2020 Janeway Trainee Research Award.

Olivia Dutton was awarded the NSERC-PGS M.

Kayla Hollett won the 2019 Canadian Mental Health Association Research Award, the 2019 Renata Withers Memorial Scholarship from the Eating Disorder Foundation of NL, the 2020 Memorial University Graduate Students' Union Research Excellence Award, and a 2019 SSHRC Master's Canada Graduate Scholarship.

Victoria Kavanagh was awarded the Women's Association of MUN Graduate Scholarship

Jessika Lamarre was awarded an NSERC CGS-M + Dean’s Excellence Award.

Chris Lively was awarded the Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship. He was also awarded the BMS Scholarship for Student Research and Leadership Development Grant from the Canadian Psychological Association, BMS Group, and the Council of Professional Associations of Psychology; the Graduate Students’ Union Award for Excellence in Teaching, Memorial University; the Student Research and Knowledge Dissemination Grant – Canadian Psychological Association; and the Professional Development Award for Per Course Instructors, Memorial University.

Darcie Valois won a 2020 SSHRC Doctoral Canada Graduate Scholarship

Marie Wasef received the CGS-M and the ARC-NL Fellowship (2019-2020)

2018 - 2019 Academic Year

Chris Lively was awarded the 2018 Certificate of Academic Excellence for Master’s Thesis – Canadian Psychological Association

Laura Fallon was awarded the Graduate Student Union Excellence in Teaching Award

Laura Fallon was awarded the F.A. Aldrich Graduate Award

Weyam Fahmy was awarded the Mitacs Globalink Research Award

Weyam Fahmy was awarded the Law Foundation of NL Legal Research Award

Shannon Bedford was awarded the Renata Elizabeth Withers Memorial Scholarship

Emily Saunders was awarded the Janeway Foundation Trainee Award

Kayla Hollett was awarded the Women's Association of Memorial University Graduate Student Scholarship and the Eating Disorder Foundation of NL Renata Withers Memorial Scholarship

Jaclyn Aubin was awarded the Jon Lien Memorial Scholarship

Kaylee Busniuk was awarded the Commander Peter G. Chance Scholarship

Katrina Shwedack was awarded the Leslie M. Tuck Avian Ecology Scholarship

2017 - 2018 Academic Year

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Ross Connolly
Cheryll Fitzpatrick
Michelle Fitzsimmons 

Psy.D. Thesis Defense

Tanaya Chatterjee 
Anderson Dorbeck 
Alyssa Gruchy 
Adam Stacey 
Julian Torres 

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence

Masters Thesis: 

Landon Churchill
Therese Kenny
Chris Lively

Doctoral Thesis:

Kerri Bojman
Cheryll Fitzpatrick
Melissa Hoskins

Other Awards and Distinctions

Leanna Lewis (Behavioural Neuroscience - Thorpe) was presented with the Best Talk at the 2018 Annual Psychology Research Day for "Can the FEO Ameliorate the Deleterious Effect of Circadian Rhythm Disruption in and Animal Model of Social Jet Leg?"

Kaylee Busniak was awarded an NSERC CGS M  for 2017-2018

Megan Van Wijk (MSc student) won the 2018 Renata Elizabeth Withers Memorial Scholarship from the Eating Disorders Foundation.

Kayla Wall was awarded a Cancer Research Training Program Award (Beatrice Hunter Cancer Research Institute).

2016 - 2017 Academic Year

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Kirk Luther

Psy.D. Thesis Defense

Kerri Bojman
Ben Goddard 
Ashli Hayes 
Melissa Hoskins
Heather Quinlan
Katharine Stabb
Tricia Teeft

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence

Masters Thesis:

Zachary Keeping
Meghan Quinlan
Megan Pollard

Doctoral Thesis:

Benjamin Goddard
Kirk Luther
Katherine Stabb

Other Awards and Distinctions

Megan Pollard won the University Medal of Excellence for the best Masters thesis at the Spring 2017 Convocation.

Kirk Luther won the Governor General’s Medal (Graduate) at the Spring 2017 convocation

Breanna Lane who is the first ever student in psychology to be selected for the TPMI Educational Funding award from NL Support, Patient Oriented Research, in the Faculty of Medicine, MUN.

MAPS student Samantha Scurrey, supervised by Dr. Sheila Garland, has been awarded the Women’s Association of Memorial University (WAMUN) Non-Thesis Route Scholarship for 2016-2017.

The Best Talk was presented to Laura Fallon for "An examination of the use of inter-rater reliability in forensic psychology journals" at the 2017 Psychology Research Day.

2015 - 2016 Academic Year

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to David Speed who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation with distinction.

Congratulations to Sarah MacDonald who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation.

Congratulations to Su Xiao who successfully defended her Ph.D. dissertation.

Psy.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Heather Patterson who successfully defended her Psy.D. dissertation.

Congratulations to Stacy Smith who successfully defended her Psy.D. dissertation with distinction.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Success

Congratulations to Tyler Ensor who successfully passed his Ph.D. comprehensive exam with distiction.

Congratulations to Sriya Bhattacharya who successfully passed her Ph.D. comprehensive exam.

Other Awards and Distinctions

2016 National Student Evaluation Case Competition

Congratulations to Olivia Cleary, Laura Fallon, Sandra Parsons, Marshal Rodrigues, and Lauren Matthews for winning the 2016 National Student Evaluation Case Competition.

The competition was held at the Canadian Evaluation Society Conference in St. John’s. The students competed against two teams, one from the University of Guelph and the other from the University of Saskatchewan.  Teams were given five hours to research and respond to a request for proposals entitled "Young Adult Cancer Canada’s Support Events".  After each team presented their proposals to a panel of experts, Memorial University of Newfoundland was announced as the winning team!

2014 - 2015 Academic Year

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Paul Regular, Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology program, who successfully defended his PhD thesis.  Paul’s thesis was entitled “Foraging Strategies of a Pursuit-Diving Seabird in a Dynamic Marine Environment”.  He was co-supervised by Drs. Bill Montevecchi and Dr. Greg Robertson (Canadian Wildlife Service).

Congratulations are extended to Elizabeth Russell who successfully defended her Doctoral Dissertation.  Elizabeth’s thesis was entitled "Age-Friendly Community Capacity Building in Newfoundland and Labrador". She was spervised by Dr. Ken Fowler.

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Success

Congratulations are extended to Phillip Mac Callum for passing his Comprehensive Exam.  His paper was entitled "Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin-Dependent Translation Regulation in Fear Memory Consolidation and Reconsolidation".  Phillip is being supervised by Dr. Blundell

Congratulations are extended to Jesse Whiteman for passing his Comprehensive Exam. His paper was entitled "The effects of rapamycin on food intake and body weight: A behavioural neuroscience perspective". He is being supervised by Dr. Blundell.

Congratulations are extended to Kyle Morrissey for passing his Comprehensive Exam. His paper was entitled "A methodological review in the violent video game effects literature". He is being supervised by Dr.Hallett

Other Awards and Distinctions

Adam Stacey for receiving a 2014-2015 NLCAHR Dissertation Award for his research project “The Effects of Mindfulness Training on Physician-Patient Communication”.

Kirk Luther for winning the SSHRC Talent Award

Cheryll Fitzpatrick for winning the SSHRC Doctoral Award

Tyler Ensor for winning the NSERC Masters Fellowship Award

Susan Doyle for winning the Faculty of Science 3MT competition, and to David Speed for being the runner-up.

2013 - 2014 Academic Year

Psy.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations are extended to Pamela Button for passing her Doctor of Psychology Oral Defense on April 30, 2014.  Her thesis was entitled "Maladaptive Coping Strategies in Health Professional Students Dealing with Stress".  Pamela was Co-Supervised by both Dr. Olga Heath (MUN) and Dr. Natalie Beausoleil (MUN). Also on the Supervisory Committee was Dr. Ken Fowler (MUN) and Dr. Nancy Heath (McGill University).

Congratulations are extended to Krystle O'Leary for passing her Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Oral Defense on April 15, 2014.  Her thesis was entitled "Nature and Nurture: The Role of Math Experiences and Personality Traits in Math Anxiety".  Krystle was supervised by Dr. Darcy Hallett (Co-Supervised by Sarah Francis). Also on the Supervisory Committee was Dr. Jackie Hesson from Education at MUN.

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Roberta DiDonato (Supervisor: Aimee Surprenant) on passing her Ph.D. Defense. Roberta's discipline is cognition and her Thesis title is “Effortful and Effortless Listening: How Age-Related Hearing Loss and Cognitive Abilities Interact and Influence Memory Performance In Older Adults”.

Congratulations to Meagan MacKenzie (Supervisor: Ken Fowler) on passing her Ph.D. Defense. Meagan’s Discipline is Experimental Psychology and her Thesis title is “A Multidimensional Profile of Canadians with Social Anxiety Disorder: Sociodemographics, Social Support, and Stress”.

Psy.D. Comprehensive Exam Success

Congratulations to the following Psy.D. students who passed their comprehensive exam:

Rebecca Ginsburg
Tyler Reitsma
Anna Richter
Katharine Stabb
Julian Torres

Ph.D. Comprehensive Exam Success

Congratulations to Ross Connolly for passing his Comprehensive Exam.  His paper was titled "A meta-analytic review and evaluation of exercise interventions on decreasing depressive symptoms for inmates".  He is being supervised by Dr. Sarah Francis.

Congratulations to Kirk Luther for passing (with distinction) his Comprehensive Exam on May 13, 2014. His paper was titled "Social Psychological Analysis of the Mr. Big Technique". He is being supervised by Dr. Brent Snook.

Congratulations to Marsha Rowsell for passing her Comprehensive Exam. Her paper was titled "Subtyping OCD: What, if any, is the optimal way?". She is being supervised by Dr. Sarah Francis.

External Funding/Awards

Psychology

Stacy Smith has been awarded a CIHR Health Professional Student Award to spend 6 weeks this summer working on research with Dr. Jacqueline Carter.

Jonathan Canning: SSHRC J. Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship and Dean's Excellence Award.

Kirk Luther: SSHRC J. Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral

Kerri Bojman: 2014 Renata Elizabeth Withers Memorial Scholarship' from the Eating Disorders Federation of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology

Sarah Adcock: NSERC CGS D3

Chantelle Burke: LGL Limited Scholarship in Marine Science

Amy-Lee Kouwenberg: 2013 Leslie M. Tuck Avian Conservation Scholarship Award

Department Award presented at Psychology Research Day (April 2, 2014)

The Best Spoken Presentation was awarded to Sarah Oates (Metamemory For Words In Noise )

Other Awards and Distinctions

Congratulations to Bruce Dibben and Morag Ryan who received the Certificate of Teaching Excellence from the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology.

Paul Regular was awarded "The Best Ph.D. Talk" at the Pacific Seabird Group Annual Meeting in Juneau, Alaska in February 2014 for his talk entitled “Why timing is everything: Consequences of resource mismatch for a chick-rearing seabird at an energy ceiling.”

Kirk Luther who won the People Choice Award from the National Three Minute Thesis Competition.

Kirk Luther won the 2014 3MT (Three Minute Thesis) Eastern Regional Championship that was hosted by the School of Graduate Studies at Dalhousie University on April 24th, 2014.  Kirk took top prize out of 8 previous winners from the Eastern Region.

Kirk Luther took top prize out of nearly 25 presenters across the University.  Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is a research communication competition developed in 2008 by The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia. Research students have three minutes to present a compelling oration on their thesis and its significance.

Congratulations to Psychology's new Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies: Kirk Luther

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence for Best Thesis (2014)

Masters Thesis:

Kirk Luther
Philip MacCallum
Marsha Rowsell

PhD/PsyD Thesis:

Valerie Noel
Sarah Chaulk
Megan MacKenzie

2012 - 2013 Academic Year

Psy.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Sarah Chaulk for successfully defending her Psy.D. thesis.  The title of her research was "Measuring and predicting police caution comprehension in adult offenders and the relationship to cognitive functioning".

Congratulations to Lisa Moores for successfully defending her Psy.D. thesis.  The title of her research was “Come from away, far away: The lived experience of International Students in a Predominantly Homogeneous Host Culture”.

Congratulations to Kathy Keating for successfully defending her Psy.D. thesis. The title of her research was “The effect of mental illness label and characteristics of persons with mental illness on police officer attitudes and behavioural responses”.

Ph.D. Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Valerie Noel on passing her Ph.D. Defense with Distinction.  Valerie’s Discipline is Experimental Psychology and her Thesis title is “The Influence of Quality of Relationships on the Links between Cognitive and Behavioural Variables Associated with the Development of Depression in Youth.”  Valerie was Supervised by Dr. Sarah Francis from Psychology.

CABE Thesis Defense

Congratulations to Laura McFarlane Tranquilla (Supervisor: William Montevecchi) on passing her Ph.D. Defense.  Her thesis title is "Ecological separation of murres (Uria lomvia and U. aalge) during the non-breeding season in the North West Atlantic Ocean”

Comprehensive Exam Success

The following Psy.D. students successfully completed their comprehensive exam: Tricia Teeft, Anders Dorbeck, Chris Duggan, Jodi Stuckless, Ben Goddard, Heather Patterson, and Heather Quinlan.

Adam Brown successfully completed the Ph.D. comprehensive exam in experimental psychology.

Other Awards and Distinctions

Amy-Lee Kowenberg was awarded the 2013 Leslie M. Tuck Avian Conservation Scholarship Award.

Kirk Luther was selected as one of the top five winners in the SSHRC Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers competition. Kirk has been invited to present his research at the World Social Science Forum in Montreal in October.

Elizabeth Russell has been accepted into the program and will be attending the program in Toronto in May.  This program is designed to offer graduate students and post-doctoral fellows involved in research relevant to aging, and those doing post-graduate clinical training that includes a program of research in aging, an advanced research training program that crosses disciplines, sectors, institutions and geography.

Kirk Luther submitted a video entry into the newly launched SSHRC competition titled "Research for a Better Life: The Storytellers". His video submission tells the story of his research on youths and the criminal justice system - specifically, how well youths understand their legal rights. Kirk was one of 25 winners from across Canada to win this competition. He will be presenting his research in Victoria, BC at Congress 2013.

Graduate Students Union Awards (May 2013)

Meagan MacKenzie was awarded the GSU Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Michelle Fitzsimmons was awarded both the GSU Award for Excellence in Community Service and GSU Award for Leadership.

Department Award presented at Psychology Research Day (April 3, 2013)

The Best Spoken Presentation was awarded to Morag Ryan (Interspecific attachment: Social bonds between humans and their "best friends").

External Funding/Awards

Psychology

Cheryll Fitzpatrick - 2013 Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies; Dean's Doctoral Award

Kirk Luther - Law Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador Legal Research; SSHRC J. Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship; Dean's Excellence Award

Meagan MacKenzie - NLCAHR Doctoral Fellowship

Stacy Smith - Eating Disorders Foundation of NL Doctoral Scholarship

Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology

Michelle Fitzsimmons - MUN Graduate Fellowship; Dr. Joe Brown Graduate Research Award in Aquatic Ecology

Matthew Ingram - NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship

Amy-Lee Kouwenberg - George Weston Graduate Scholarship; Royal Bank Marine Studies Award; North American Ornithological Congress Travel Award

Morag Ryan - Dr. Anna C. Templeton Memorial Graduate Scholarship; Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarships (CGS) NSERC; Dean's Excellence Award

Congratulations to CABE's new Fellows of the School of Graduate Studies: Amy-Lee Kouwenberg, Laura McFarlane Tranquilla, Matthew Ingram, & Morag Ryan.

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence for Best Master's Thesis (2013):

Cheryll Fitzpatrick
Genieve Peckford

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence for Best Master's Thesis (2012):

Scott Deibel
Sarah MacDonald
Megan Short

2011 – 2012 Academic Year

Department Award presented at Psychology Research Day (March 30, 2012)

The Best Spoken Presentation was awarded to Kerri Bojman (Similarities and differences in emotional deficits: An investigation of the relationship between emotion regulation and alexithymia in undergraduate students).

External Funding/Awards

Psychology

Roberta DiDonato – NLCAHR NL-HARP Doctoral Dissertation Award

Annie Jalbert – Fellow of the School of Graduate Studies

Kathy Keating - SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship; Recognition of Excellence at the Graduate Level

Kirk Luther - Law Foundation of Newfoundland & Labrador Legal Research

Sarah MacDonald - SSHRC J. Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Valerie Noel - Canadian Mental Health Association NL Division Mental Health Research Scholarship

Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology

Alejandro Buren - Dr. Wilfred Templeman Memorial Graduate Scholarship

Laura McFarlane Tranquilla - Fellowship from the Leonard and Kathleen O'Brien Humanitarian Trust

Emily Zimmerman - Dr. Wilfred Templeman Memorial Graduate Scholarship

Amy-Lee Kouwenberg - George Weston Graduate Scholarship

CPA Certificate of Academic Excellence for Best Master's Thesis (2011)

Kristen Williams
Rachel Clay
Hilary Edison