Kansas State University

MANHATTAN -- A Kansas State University professor is being recognized for career and research excellence.

Mary Cain, associate professor of psychological sciences in the university's College of Arts and Sciences, has been selected for the American Psychological Association's Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology. The selection was made based on her career achievements and leadership potential.

And her honors don't stop there.

Cain also recently received a three-year, $436,000 grant from the National Institute for Drug Abuse, as well as the Clifford T. Morgan Award for Distinguished Service to Division 6 of the American Psychological Association.

"This is the kind of national recognition many of our faculty deserve and earn, but we often don't hear about it," said Peter Dorhout, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "It's hard to blow one's own horn. Dr. Cain is doing exceptional things, and I'm glad she's being recognized for them."

The National Institute for Drug Abuse grant, titled "The Effects of Differential Rearing on Glutamate Homeostasis and Addiction," will allow Cain and her team of students to study how an enriched environment changes a system in the brain to help protect against drug abuse.

"The grant is an R-15 mechanism, which has a focus on student research in particular," Cain said. "In my laboratory, I incorporate undergraduates as an active part of my research program and this grant will enable me to more formally give them better resources."

Cain has dedicated her career to the examination of the neurobiological basis of drug abuse. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in psychological sciences and leads research teams of three graduate and eight undergraduate students, including a Chapman and two McNair Scholars at Kansas State University.

For her work, Cain was honored this spring with the Clifford T. Morgan Award for Distinguished Service to Division 6 -- behavioral neuroscience and comparative psychology -- of the American Psychological Association. The award recognizes members who have made sustained and exceptional contributions to the division. Recipients of the award are expected to have made a prolonged contribution in terms of both scholarly content and service.

"Dr. Cain's history of service to the university and to her discipline has been remarkable. She truly is an emerging leader in her field, both inside the laboratory and outside of it," said Michael Young, head of Kansas State University's department of psychological sciences.

Cain's selection for the American Psychological Association's Leadership Institute for Women in Psychology is in recognition of her outstanding career achievements and demonstrated leadership potential. The institute's mission is to prepare, support and empower women psychologists as leaders to promote positive changes in institutional and organizational life.

"I'm personally happy to receive recognition, but I'm happy for my students, the department and K-State. I feel like we're working hard to achieve things and they are falling into place," Cain said.

Cain earned a bachelor's in psychology from Manhattan College in New York and a master's and a doctorate in experimental psychology from the University of Vermont.