The Ring Professorship in Psychology
Dr. Natalie Ebner is a Professor and the Inaugural recipient of the Ring Professorship in Psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida. She is an expert in experimental affective, social, and cognitive aging research, with extensive expertise in decision-making. She uses a multi-methods approach in her research that includes self-report, cognitive-behavioral measures, neuroimaging, and biomarkers. As a pre- and postdoctoral fellow at the Free University Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, she has supervised behavioral research on emotion-cognition interactions in aging. As a postdoctoral fellow, later as Associate Research Scientist at Yale University, and as faculty at the University of Florida (UF), she has expanded her research to examine neuropsychological changes associated with cognition-emotion interactions and decision-making. Methods applied to these studies include structural and functional MRI and eye tracking as well as pharmacological (i.e., intranasal oxytocin administration), brain stimulation (real-time fMRI neurofeedback training), and real-life (i.e., simulated phishing) interventions, in both healthy and pathological aging (e.g., Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias).
In addition to her primary appointment in the Department of Psychology at UF, she holds affiliations with the Center for Cognitive Aging and Memory, the Institute on Aging, the Department of Physiology and Aging, the McKnight Brain Institute, the Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence, the Substance Abuse Training Center in Public Health, the Florida Institute for National Security, and the Florida Institute for Cyber Security Research. She has received multiple awards, such as the International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course Outstanding Alumni Award, the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences International Educator of the Year Award, the UF Research Foundation Professorship Award, the UF College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Faculty Achievement Award. Since 2015, she has been a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and, since 2023, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. She has published 117 articles and given numerous invited talks. Over the past 10 years, her research has been funded by NIH, NSF, FDOH, ONR, and other agencies. She is a committed mentor of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral trainees as well as early-career faculty, resulting in NIH K01 awards and NIH diversity supplements awarded to her mentees. She presently serves as the Director of the Early Career Faculty/Scholar Grant Writing Academy in Psychology at UF.
With the support of the Ring Professorship, Dr. Ebner is expanding her mentorship and training. She has launched a lecture series and hands-on workshops on methods and new applications in experimental psychology, including advanced computational modeling in decision-making research (Dr. Wilson, Georgia Tech) and novel eye-tracking technologies (Dr. Isaacowitz, Washington University in St. Louis). She is also building new connections with tech companies (Coinbase, Google) and elder law stakeholders (US Attorney’s office, FTC, AARP) in the context of her research on elder fraud and exploitation. This work, under the auspices of the Ring Professorship, promotes and enhances research collaboration and training across UF.
“I am immensely grateful for the unique recognition and the generous support that this endowed professorship provides, which will allow me to propel forward my research group’s agenda as well as research and training opportunities in the Department of Psychology more broadly!” (Natalie Ebner)
The Department of Psychology is honored and excited to be able to award the 1st Ring Professorship to Dr. Ebner. Julia Graber, Chair of the Department of Psychology, notes that “With Dr. Ebner’s vision, the impact of this Professorship will extend beyond the work of a single faculty member of lab elevating the research and training of the department and the University of Florida. Thanks so much to Dr. Trish and Mr. Carl Ring for the generous support of our department and for partnering with us to lead the future of Psychological Science.”