Message from the Chair

Greetings Colleagues,

I hope your academic year is off to a wonderful start. The Rice University Department of Psychological Sciences continues to grow, with new faculty leading pioneering research, a stellar track record of research productivity, an expanded and renovated space on our beautiful campus, and a recently announced #7 ranking by Niche (a bump from #13 in 2025!).

This newsletter contains stories about our faculty and students who have made headlines with their groundbreaking research. As you will see, our small but mighty program specializes in connecting basic science to application. From brain health to novel AI research methods to Alzheimer’s studies in underrepresented populations and more, you will find below just a sampling of how Rice University’s Department of Psychological Sciences is contributing to our field and making a meaningful impact on the communities in which we live. If you would like to learn more about our department, I invite you to visit our website.

Sincerely,

Margaret Beier
Autrey Professor of Psychological Sciences and Chair
Department of Psychological Sciences
Rice University

Four renowned faculty members join psychological sciences department

Marc Coutanche is a cognitive neuroscientist whose research examines learning and memory, perception, and developing analytical methods to understand brain function by applying machine learning to neuroimaging. Among other questions, his work asks how we learn, form organized knowledge and successfully retrieve it.

Noni Gaylord-Harden focuses her research on the impact of community violence exposure and traumatic loss on mental health outcomes in Black adolescents and families. The overarching goals of her work are to address disparities in community violence exposure and to develop and implement interventions that promote transformative healing for Black adolescents and families affected by violence.

James LeBreton specializes in quantitative methods and industrial-organizational psychology. His research focuses on psychological measurement, advanced statistical methods, and the application of quantitative techniques to organizational topics, including personality, leadership, team processes, workplace misconduct, as well as the development and validation of psychological assessments.

Alyssa (Allie) Sinclair is a cognitive neuroscientist who studies how people update their memories, beliefs, and behaviors. Her expertise spans learning and memory, belief and behavior change, motivation and emotion, and information consumption. Her research bridges foundational insights about the mind and brain with interventions to promote learning and positive behavior change, relevant to public health, climate change, and education.

Department Receives High Scholarly Research Index Ranking

Rice University’s Department of Psychological Sciences competes with top programs in terms of scholarly output. Data from Academic Analytics’ Scholarly Research Index ranked Rice Psychological Sciences highest in relation to articles, citations, conference proceedings, federal grants, honorific awards, books, and chapters.