The awards are funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, and the Graduate School research committee selects winners. Lyn Abramson , professor of psychology. Abramson has made contributions to the understanding of vulnerability and invulnerability to depression. Her pioneering work on optimistic cognitive illusions illuminates how people are protected from depression and challenges the long-held assumption that cognitive distortion always is a hallmark of psychopathology. Stephen R. Carpenter , professor of zoology.
Carpenter studies the processes that control productivity of lakes.
Carpenter has manipulated food chains of whole lakes in large-scale experiments that test the effects of top predators, like bass and walleye, on lake productivity. David Loewenstein , professor of English. Loewenstein is a past winner of several prestigious national fellowships, including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Thomas F. J. Martin , professor of biochemistry. Martin studies the fundamental process regulating the secretion of neurotransmitters and hormones from cells of the nervous and endocrine systems.