Campus News 2007-2008

Professor Leah Light Receives Prestigious Research Award

Professor of Psychology Leah Light

(November 19, 2007) Professor of Psychology Leah Light has received the 2007 Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement Award from Division 20 (Adulthood and Aging) of the American Psychological Association (APA). A Pitzer College faculty member since 1970, her areas of expertise include human memory and cognition with a specialization in memory and aging.

The Baltes Distinguished Research Achievement (DRA) Award, sponsored by the Margret M. and Paul B. Baltes Foundation, is Division 20’s most prestigious award. It has been established to honor researchers who have made exceptional theoretical and empirical contributions to the psychological science of aging. Light was presented with a plaque and a monetary award at the annual APA convention in August and will deliver the Baltes DRA Award Address at next year’s convention.

“The Pitzer faculty are justifiably proud of the life achievements of their colleague Leah Light and wish to extend to her their congratulations on the occasion of her winning the prestigious Baltes award,” Dean of Faculty Alan Jones said. “Her on-going contributions to the study of human memory in the context of aging are significant and noteworthy and her commitment to productively engaging undergraduates in her research program has been an inspiration to all of us,” he continued.

Light has previously served Division 20 of the American Psychological Association as president (2004-05), secretary, member-at-large and chair of student awards. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 1, 3, 20), the Association for Psychological Science and the Gerontological Society of America. She served as editor of Psychology and Aging, a journal of the American Psychological Association, from 1998 to 2002, and is currently a member of the APA Publications and Communications Board.