Undergraduates
Undergraduate research assistant positions for credit are not available at this time.
Prospective Graduate Students – 2027-2028 admissions cycle
I can serve as primary advisor for a graduate student admitted through the Health Psychology Area for the 2027-2028 academic year.
Students *must* have specific interests in social relationships in one or more of three contexts:
- Social well-being in the context of health, chronic illness and biological aging. Social well-being (social support, social isolation) or romantic relationship functioning in the context of chronic illness or pregnancy. Importantly, mechanisms related to biological aging are of particular interest.
- Bereavement and grief. Rather than the loss of a specific relationship (e.g., spousal bereavement), we are interested in the accumulation of bereavement experiences over the lifecourse, their timing, and their impact on biological aging and health.
- Increasing new social connections or improving the quality of existing connections in university settings. As co-leader of interest groups spanning emotional and social well-being in the Semel Healthy Campus Initiative Center at UCLA, I work to translate research on social connections and health to our campus, particularly for staff and students.
That’s it – I will not consider students who have interests outside these three domains, even if some of your interests overlap with some of my prior published research (e.g., parent-child relationships and health, etc.).
I can be a secondary mentor for students admitted in the Health Psychology area or other areas. In the past I have been a secondary or co-mentor for students admitted in the Clinical, Developmental, and Social and Affective Neuroscience Areas.
If you’re interested in applying through the Clinical area: Since Clinical is my secondary area, you should look for a primary mentor among faculty whose primary area is Clinical, based on your fit with their research interests.
For students applying from abroad (international students who are not US citizens, permanent residents, or DACA or AB540 holders), please note that our department carefully reviews our ability to offer a full funding package to cover 5 years in the program when considering applicants for admission. Funding packages for international students must include funds to cover non-resident tuition (currently $15,102 per year) after Year 1 and until advancement to candidacy (usually after 2-3 years). I do not have additional funding to cover non-resident student tuition after Year 1, so I can only consider international students that have secured funding from a guaranteed source, such as the Fulbright Foreign Student Program.