It is an exhilarating time in the department as we welcome the following new faculty with full or part-time psychology appointments.

Leo Alexander III recently earned his doctoral degree from Rice University. Dr. Alexander will be contributing as an Assistant Professor in our Industrial/Organizational program and share time with the School of Labor and Employee Relations. His focus lies in psychological testing and psychometrics while focusing on newer technologies, e.g., big data, machine learning, and mobile testing. Find more about Dr. Alexander’s research HERE.

Victor Cervantes is transitioning from his role as a postdoctoral research associate to Assistant Professor in Quantitative Psychology. Dr. Cervantes’ current research centers on the notion of contextuality as it applies to the systems of random variables as well as applications to psychology and quantum mechanics. Learn more about Dr. Cervantes HERE.

Jozien Goense is an incoming Associate Professor from the University of Glasgow with additional appointments in the School of Bioengineering and Beckman Institute. Her research focuses on investigating the laminar neural circuits in the sensory cortex of humans and animals as well as elucidating the relationship between neural activity and hemodynamic response using high-resolution fMRI at ultra-high field and multi-channel electrophysiology. You can read more about Dr. Goense’s research HERE.

Michael Rizzo was a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University before accepting the position of Assistant Professor in Developmental Psychology with UIUC. Dr. Rizzo’s research concentrates on moral development, anti-racism, social cognition, and social equity. Read more about Dr. Rizzo’s research HERE.

Bo Zhang received his Ph.D. from our department and has accepted an Assistant Professor position in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and share time with the School of Labor and Employee Relations. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on personnel selection, e.g., personality faking, forced-choice, and predictive validity of hierarchal constructs. Click HERE for more information on Dr. Zhang’s work.