Jonathan S. Abramowitz, professor of psychology and neuroscience in the College of Arts & Sciences and director of the UNC Anxiety and Stress Disorders Clinic, has received The Graduate School’s 2020 Faculty Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring.
This award recognizes a faculty member who encourages students to establish their own record of scholarly activity or performance, provides a supportive environment that facilitates the development of best performance and talents from individual graduate students, and achieves a successful record of graduate degree completion among the students they have advised.
Presentation of this award takes place at the annual Doctoral Hooding Ceremony, which recognizes graduate students receiving their doctoral degrees. The 2020 ceremony has been postponed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At its core, the Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes the pivotal role that mentoring plays in the degree progression and career development of graduate students,” said Graduate School Dean Suzanne E. Barbour. “Dr. Abramowitz exemplifies the highest standards of mentorship in his encouragement of student ideas, leadership and accomplishment – and his support for students does not end when they are hooded and move on to their independent careers.
“We look forward to congratulating Dr. Abramowitz in person when we can safely do so. In the meantime, I am very pleased to announce that he has received our 2020 award and thank him for his outstanding commitment to graduate student success.”
Abramowitz joined the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty in 2006. During his career at UNC-Chapel Hill, he has mentored 10 doctoral students, chaired doctoral dissertation committees for seven students, chaired master’s thesis committees for eight students and supervised honors theses for 17 undergraduate students. In 2012, he received the UNC-Chapel Hill Psychology Club Award for Outstanding Contribution to Mentoring Students in their Research.
The nomination letter stated that a principal emphasis of Abramowitz’s career is to foster the growth and success of his students. That emphasis, the letter said, includes encouraging students’ ideas, reinforcing their enthusiasm for scientific inquiry and reminding students presenting at research symposia that they are “experts in our areas of study (thanks to his influential training) … prepared to handle any question the audience might pose.”
Abramowitz’s research laboratory group focuses on developing knowledge toward the successful treatment of anxiety. Abramowitz’s research group is currently collaborating with colleagues at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on a study examining the predictors of postpartum obsessive-compulsive disorder. This research, just under way, is supported through a five-year National Institute of Mental Health grant awarded to Abramowitz as principal investigator.
He has produced more than 300 publications in his research field and serves as editor in chief of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.
“I am extremely honored to be recognized for doing what I love most about being an academic psychologist – sharing my skills, knowledge and expertise with the wonderful undergraduate and graduate students in our Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. It is the greatest feeling to see my students flourish during their time at Carolina and beyond.”
Courtesy of The Graduate School