Congratulations are in order for Ramesh Bhatt, who has recently won a three-year National Science Foundation grant worth $432,751. Bhatt, a professor in the Department of Psychology, will use the support to expand his research on the development of social functioning in infancy. For example, Bhatt will analyze how infants from 3 to 9 months of age react to systematic changes to body and face images, documenting which aspects of bodies and faces infants scan. The results will help Bhatt determine whether babies know as much about bodies as about faces.

In addition to supporting the university’s mission to contribute to basic scientific knowledge, Bhatt’s NSF grant may also help answer questions about Autism, a developmental disability that has had a great impact on our society.

#1 on my “bucket list” is arranging a private concert by Diana Krall for me and 30 or so hand-picked friends and family.  (Ella is no longer available.)  The playlist will be chosen mostly from her “Live in Paris” CD and her “All for You” CD.  The finale will be Diana’s version of Joni Mitchell’s “A case of you.”  The champagne will be French; Kentucky will, of course, supply the bourbon.  Mr. Dave and Ms. Betty will put together the menu. 

There must be at least one dream on your bucket list….

            Opulence and squalor usually seem worlds apart. Country clubs usually don’t border low-income housing, designer clothing stores purposefully keep access to their goods limited to only a certain clientele (if you haven’t seen the movie Pretty Woman, watch it and you’ll get the reference), and the checking accounts that most people take for granted are a privilege offered only to people who have quality credit. Yet, I just experienced an exception to this rule.

            I just landed in Kunming, which is a town in southwestern China. My hosts Xinyue Zhou, Ding-guo Gua, and I flew here to attend the biennial Asian Association of Social Psychology conference. (We’re usually in a town called Guangzhou, which is located in south central China.)