Rodrigo Costa, graduate student, whose advisor is Dr. Roberto L. Abreu was awarded a Diversity Awareness and Affirmation Committee (DAAC) Travel Scholarship. DAAC is a student organization led by psychology students at UF that aims to foster multiculturalism and diversity and promote support for students of diverse cultural backgrounds. Rodrigo Costa, a 2nd-year Counseling Psychology PhD student at UF, received a $300 travel award for his dedication to research that supports the DAAC mission. He used these funds to support his travels to the American Psychological Association 2025 Convention in Denver, CO, from August 7th–9th, and present his research on critical consciousness, collective action, resilience, and mental health outcomes among LGBTQ+ young adults.
Ece Yuksel, Graduate Student, received the Psychonomic Society Annual Meeting Graduate Travel Award ( $750). This competitive award recognizes graduate students’ contributions to advancing the science of cognition and provides funding for them to present at the Society’s annual meeting. She will present her research on spatial memory and navigation in virtual environments at the conference in Denver.
Congratulations to Vanessa Frei, Post Doctoral Associate, on being selected as a 2025 Gator NeuroScholar Award recipient by the McKnight Brain Institute leadership team. This prestigious award provides salary support, annual travel funds, and dedicated research funding to help launch a successful career in neuroscience research and support the development of competitive career grant applications. As a Gator NeuroScholar, Vanessa will work with Dr. Ebner and Dr. Rossi in their research labs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at UF and closely interact with the neuroscience community within the McKnight Brain Institute and across campus. We are proud to celebrate Vanessa’s achievement and look forward to the exciting research to come.