A Letter from the Chair

Thank you for visiting our website. The Psychology Department at the University of Maryland-College Park has undergone much change in recent years. With the full support of the College of Behavioral Science and the University Administration, we are striving to become one of the very best graduate departments of psychology in the country. Over the past 8 years we have hired 14 new faculty members, including 4 full professors, and plan continued expansion in the future.

Please learn about our department by looking around our website, or better yet, coming to visit in person. We have outstanding Ph.D. programs in eight areas of psychology: clinical; cognitive; counseling; developmental; industrial and organizational; integrative neuroscience; sensorineural and perceptual processes; and social. And we also participate actively in the interdisciplinary program in neuroscience and cognitive science and provide an interdisciplinary minor in cognitive systems and their development. You can find links to the various pages by clicking on Academics and then on Graduate or on Interdisciplinary.

We have extensive undergraduate offerings that span the domain of psychology and a highly competitive honors program. Many of our undergraduates gain research experience either through course enrollment or by working in faculty members' laboratories, or in field settings where their research is done (e.g., hospitals, businesses, schools, etc.) and some gain teaching experience by serving as assistants in lab courses. Many of our majors go on to graduate school in psychology or to any of a vast array of professional programs, including in medicine, law, business, social work, or a host of other areas. To learn about our undergraduate program, click on Academics and then Undergraduate.

Research, lead by the faculty, is a major part of our activity. They, along with graduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other scientists work in a very large number of highly specialized, well equipped laboratories, as well as in field settings. We are proud that as of this writing, the department has $15-million in external research funding in place, with many other proposals currently under consideration. You can learn more about research activities, including how to participate, by clicking on Research and following the links.

Finally, our department serves the discipline and the nation via many of the faculty's activities. Some of our members serve on national advisory boards, are officers in national or international professional associations, and are editors or associate editors of major journals, including at the moment the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Again, I thank you for visiting our website, and hope you find what you are looking for.

Sincerely yours,

William Hall, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair