Linda Zou Receives National Science Foundation’s Most Prestigious Early-Career Faculty Award

Linda Zou, an assistant professor in the University of Maryland’s Department of Psychology, has been awarded one of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) most prestigious awards for early-career academic faculty members, a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. 

“This is an incredible accomplishment for Linda,” said Michael Doughtery, chair of the department. “We're extremely proud to have her in the Department of Psychology here at the University of Maryland."

Only 500 CAREER awards are given out each year to a competitive, nationwide pool of early-career researchers in the biological sciences, computer and information sciences, education and human resources, engineering, geosciences, mathematical and physical sciences, social and behavioral sciences, and more. Zou’s selected research project falls in the latter category, and as an award recipient, will receive $581,108 from NSF over the study’s five-year duration. 

“It's a huge honor to receive an NSF CAREER award,” said Zou. “I'm really excited about this project and the opportunity to investigate the psychological mechanisms of racial and ethnic discrimination, and to train and mentor young researchers of color. This award will provide us with greater resources and support to be able to pursue those goals.”

Zou’s project, titled “Inferior and foreign racial stereotypes give rise to exploitative and exclusionary discrimination,” will begin in September and utilize survey and experimental methods to help us better understand when and why different forms of racial and ethnic discrimination are likely to occur. 

This project builds on earlier discrimination research that Zou has conducted, including a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General that may have uncovered one reason why white Americans often move out of neighborhoods where the population of people of color is increasing: They perceive this population growth to be a threat to their American culture.

Zou thanks the members of her Diversity and Intergroup Relations Lab—Eesha Bokil ('23), Isabel Hertz-Miñoso ('22), Jimin Kim ('22), Joyce Li ('23), Saul Sawilowsky ('23), Isabella Stoepel ('24), and Dylan Cooper ('21 lab manager)—for helping her earn this latest recognition.

“They've been so instrumental in helping me get this work off the ground, and I look forward to working with them on this NSF-funded project,” she said.

Published on Fri, Apr 8, 2022 - 3:47PM