Sandi Smith Research Fellowship Winners

May 3, 2021 - Amber Wise

Link to news article.

 

“We are excited to honor Dr. Smith’s contributions to health and risk research with these fellowships in the support of student research.” - Dr. Maria Lapinski

The Health and Risk Communication Center (HRCC) is giving out the Sandi Smith Research Fellowship for its fourth year. This year, three graduate students were awardees for two research projects; Leigh Anne Tiffany and project partners Nolan Jahn and Shelby Wilcox.

Ms. Tiffany, with the support of Dr. Esther Thorson, will use the Sandi Smith Research Fellowship award to study the impact of science journalism experience on information selection from press releases. Her study will use a novel quasi-experimental approach to provide tangible measures of the impact of science journalism experience on science reporting news value judgements. With the guidance of Dr. Ralf Schmälzle,

Mr. Jahn and Ms. Wilcox will use the fellowship award to study how brains respond to visual images from real-world campaigns to identify what images are most engaging and effective. Jahn and Wilcox will be using an EEG (electroencephalography) device to measure the response people have to images related to e-cigarette use.

A prolific scholar and ICA Fellow, Dr. Sandi Smith’s passion for communication research, teaching, and health communication have long been an inspiration for students and faculty. In 2017, the Sandi Smith Research Fellowship was founded to celebrate her dedication to health and risk communication research in the College ofCommunication Arts & Sciences.