Ten years ago, the National Institute for Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) started an annual event to commemorate the life of acclaimed gerontologist Matilda White Riley, who had died in 2004. In a rich career that saw her transition from market research to professorship at Rutgers and Bowdoin before joining NIH — at age 68 — White Riley headed social science-based research at the NIH’s National Institute of Aging and served as Institutes’ spokesperson for social and behavioral research. She left the NIH in 1998, at age 87.
In addition to a lecture to be presented at the 10th Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Sciences Day on May 5 on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland, OBSSR is seeking research papers published by early stage investigators, defined as those with 10 years of receiving their terminal degree as of December 31. Those eligible are asked to submit one, and only one, article that has been published since January 1, 2016 or currently is in-press; the early-stage submitter must be the first author on the paper.
An NIH committee will rank these articles based on how well they demonstrate behavioral and social scientific excellence in areas within NIH’s mission and that illustrates one or more of the components of Dr. White Riley’s vision of research excellence, which includes ways that social and behavioral science research improves health, quality of life and society in general. OBSSR will pay the travel expenses for up to five ESI awardees, so they can present their paper and participate in a moderated panel discussion of future research possibilities.
The deadline for submissions is 9 a.m. on February 1 and awardees will be notified on March 8. Submissions should include the published article (with abstract) or if in press, preprint of the article accepted and acceptance letter from journal, as well as the author’s name, title, affiliation—if it differs from what appears in the submitted article. Send submission to william.elwood@nih.gov.
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