Professor Jesse Snedeker been selected for a 2019 Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award.  This award, sponsored by the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Student Council, recognizes faculty members who truly go out of of their way to mentor graduate students.

Assistant Professor Talia Konkle is the winner of the Vision Sciences Society's 2019 Young Investigator Award.  The Young Investigator Award is an award given to an early stage researcher who has already made a significant contribution to their field. The award is sponsored by Elsevier, and the awardee is invited to submit a review paper to Vision Research highlighting this contribution.

Assistant Professor of Psychology Mina Cikara has been selected to receive the 2019 Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science (APS).   The Spence award recognizes young researchers who cross traditional sub-disciplinary lines in psychological science and honors contributions that reveal the organization underlying complex behavior by drawing upon multiple fields of psychological science.

Steven Pinker wins the 2018 Carl Sagan Award for Public Appreciation of Science from the Council of Scientific Society Presidents.  The award is given annually by the society to recognize an individual for outstanding achievement in improving the public understanding and appreciation of science. 

Past winners include Carl Sagan, E. O. Wilson, Bill Nye, Phil Zimbardo, and Thomas Friedman.

The Cognitive Neuroscience Society's Distinguished Career Contributions Award was established in 2012 and it was sponsored by the Fred Kavli Foundation from 2015-2018. This award honors senior cognitive neuroscientists for their sustained and distinguished career, including outstanding scientific contributions, leadership and mentoring in the field of cognitive neuroscience.

Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics and Harvard College Professor, was presented with the rare and prestigious APS Golden Goose Award by the United States Congress.  This award honors scientists whose federally funded basic research has resulted in major benefits to society. The Golden Goose Award, given annually by a committee led by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), recognizes research that may have seemed trivial when it first received US government funding, but has since returned serious benefits to public welfare. 

Professor Elizabeth A. Phelps has been awarded the 2019 Association of Psychological Science William James Fellow Award.  This award honors APS members for their lifetime of significant intellectual contributions to the basic science of psychology. Recipients must be APS members recognized internationally for their outstanding contributions to scientific psychology. 

Professor John Weisz was selected by Scientific Research Council to receive the 2019 Sarah Gund Prize for Research and Mentorship in Child Mental Health. The award is given to an individual who has made a seminal contribution to the field of child mental health and has mentored others who have continued to advance the research of the field.

Associate Professor Leah Somerville was selected for the Flux Society's Young Investigator Award in Cognitive Neuroscience, for 2018.  This award recognizes outstanding contributions by scientists early in their careers. Award recipients have been working in the area of cognitive neuroscience for no more than 10 years involved in active independent research.

Michael D. Smith, Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, nominated Mattew K. Nock to be appointed as the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology.  The Provost offcially recognized this appointment retroactive to July 1, 2017.  This chair was established in 1929 as part of the bequest of Edgar Pierce, who graduated from Harvard College in 1892, and earned his Ph.D. in  Philosophy here in 1895.  The donor's intent was to honor a leading scholar in Philosophy or Psychology.