Adriana Galván, UCLA professor of psychology and a member of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, will receive one of two 2019 Troland Research Awards, the National Academy of Sciences announced today.
The awards, established in 1931, are given annually to recognize outstanding achievement by young researchers in experimental psychology, and include support of $75,000. Galván will be presented the Troland Research Award on April 28.
Galván has made “pioneering discoveries,” the academy said, about brain development in children, adolescents and adults. “Her work, conducted with an eye toward informing policy on juvenile justice and related issues, has already transformed our understanding of adolescent neurobiological development.”
In 2006, Galván showed that the adolescent brain inadequately regulates feelings such as desire, fight and flight. Galván’s work has addressed critical environmental factors affecting behavior, such as the role of sleep and family disadvantages on the neurodevelopment of the parts of the brain associated with risk and reward.
Galván published research last year explaining the differences between people disturbed by the 2016 presidential election who suffered a loss of appetite, trouble sleeping and concentrating, compared with others equally disturbed by the election result who have not experienced such symptoms of depression.
