APA honors Professor Ken Sher

For his lifetime research on alcohol use and abuse

The Department of Psychological Sciences is undeniably prolific when it comes to research activities. Professor Kenneth J. Sher recently received the American Psychological Association's Division on Addictions Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. This peer-nominated award recognizes Sher for his wide-ranging research during the past two decades.

The award considers the whole body of Sher's research, teaching and service. The first major theme in Sher's research dealt with individual differences in the effects of alcohol. Another theme was understanding the risk/protection mechanisms involved in intergenerational transmission of alcoholism. He has also studied alcohol-related comorbidity (the occurrence of two disorders in the same person), e.g., alcohol dependence and anxiety disorders. Most recently, with the goal of understanding the use of alcohol and its disorders over the lifespan of an individual, Sher has studied personality traits that might lead to alcohol abuse and consequences of excessive alcohol consumption in college.

Sher served on the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Task Force on College Drinking. The task force advised the U.S. Senate and college administrators on ways to potentially reduce college-age drinking or limit its harmful effects. A recent paper Sher wrote with Professor Phil Wood received considerable attention from the media and college administrators, and at least one school cited Sher's study as a reason for reinstituting Friday classes to lessen Thursday-night drinking.

Despite receiving accolades for his own research and accomplishments, Sher says, "At this stage in my career I'm much more excited when my students and mentees succeed and become known for their own good work." His former postdoctoral fellow Kristina Jackson won the Young Investigator Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism — Sher was the first winner of the same award 19 years ago. It pleases him to see his mentees establishing themselves in the field.

Professor M. Lynne Cooper, who nominated Sher for the lifetime award, summed up his accomplishments in her nomination letter: "Sher is a prodigiously productive and creative scholar whose contributions to the field are as impressive as they are numerous. That he is also an outstanding human being makes it all the easier to grant him this well-deserved award."

Links:

Kenneth Sher
Department of Psychological Sciences

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