2025 Dissertation Award – Özlü Aran, PhD

2025 Dissertation Award – Özlü Aran, PhD
Özlü Aran, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research on Integrated and Early Development (REID) Lab
College of Science, Northeastern University on the the land of The Wampanoag and The Massachusett People
Gender pronouns: she/her/hers
 
Bio:
Dr. Özlü Aran (she/her/hers) is a postdoctoral researcher in the REID Lab at Northeastern University. She completed her Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Psychology with a concentration in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Denver. Previously, she received her B.S. in Psychology and M.S. in Developmental Psychology at the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and spent a year as a Fulbright visiting researcher in the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota.
 
Özlü’s research program examines the intergenerational transmission of health with a specific emphasis on perinatal stress, health disparities, and early socioemotional development in infancy. She is committed to being an independent and strategic thinker while also examining and challenging power dynamics to support communities.

Past ISDP Dissertation Award Winners:

Nicole Walasek, PhD Postdoctoral Researcher University of Amsterdam, Evolutionary and Population Biology, Netherlands
Nicole Walasek, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Amsterdam, Evolutionary and Population Biology, Netherlands

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2023 Dissertation Award Winner: Isabella (Isa) Stallworthy, PhD  
JSMF Postdoctoral Fellow 
Complex Systems Lab
University of Pennsylvania
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Twitter: @isaStallworthy

Isabellastallworthy.com

2022 Dissertation Award Winner: Lana Ruvolo Grasser, PhD (she/her/hers)
Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC Lab; starclab.org); Jovanovic Lab—Detroit Trauma Project (DTP; detroittraumaproject.com)
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Detroit, USA  @ScientificRuvvy

– Doctoral Mentorship: Drs. Arash Javanbakht and Tanja Jovanovic.

2021 Dissertation Award Winner: Kristie L. Poole, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada, Social Development Lab, Department of Psychology @Poole_Kristie

– Postdoctoral Supervisor: Dr. Heather A. Henderson
Ph.D., Developmental Psychology; McMaster University, Child Emotion Lab, Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, & Behaviour Dissertation: The origins and heterogeneity of shyness: A developmental, biological perspective, Supervisor: Dr. Louis A. Schmidt

2020 Dissertation Award Winner:Morgan Reiss Firestein, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Developmental Neuroscience, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY USA
– Postdoctoral Mentor: William Fifer, Columbia University in the City; Dissertation Mentor: Frances Champagne, Columbia University in the City

2019 Dissertation Award Winner: Virginia C. Salo, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stress and Early Adversity Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Nashville, Research – Postdoctoral Mentor: Kathryn L. Humphreys, PhD, Ed.M.; Dissertation Mentor: Nathan Fox, PhD

2018 Dissertation Award Winner: Caitlin Cowan, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia (formerly, Caitlin Cowan, APC Microbiome Institute, University College Cork, Ireland) – Dissertation Mentor: Rick Richardson, University of New South Wales

2017 Dissertation Award Winner: Rosemarie Perry, Postdoctoral 

Research Scientist NYU, Neuroscience and Education Lab,