St. John's News

She’s not packing her bags yet—she’s not scheduled to leave until February 2009—but Assistant Professor of Psychology Robin Wellington, Ph.D. is, in a sense, already on her way to Budapest.  Dr. Wellington recently received word that she has been accepted into the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Program and will spend Spring 2009 teaching Cognitive Neuroscience on both the graduate and undergraduate levels at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, the capital of Hungary and a city of rich history and vibrant culture. Already, she’s researching the city, thinking about lodging and anticipating the exciting research she might conduct during her semester abroad.

“Central Europe was the birthplace of psychology,” the St. John’s professor notes. “But, with the Soviet occupation of Hungary after the Second World War, higher education was allowed to fall into decline. Since the fall of Communism, they’ve been in the process of rebuilding the Psych programs in Hungary and other Eastern European countries. It’s an interesting and exciting time to be a part of that.”

An expert in neuropsychiatric disorders, Wellington, holds a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology-Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to coming to St. John’s, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Neurosurgery at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center and taught Abnormal Psychology and Introduction to Psychology as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago campus. At St. John's, she teaches Physiological Psychology to undergraduates and has taught both Cognitive and Physiological Psychology in the graduate program.

“Robin Wellington is one of those few inspirational teachers,” says Raymond DiGiuseppe, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of St. John’s College Department of Psychology. “She comes alive in front of a class.  Her area of specialization, cognitive neuroscience, is challenging and represents the future of psychology.  I am sure that she will have a great impact on promoting the teaching of this area in Eastern Europe through this Fulbright fellowship.”

What Is Cognitive Neuroscience?
According to Jamie Ward in The Student’s Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience (©2006, Psychology Press), cognitive neuroscience is “an attempt to explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms.” It asks the question, Wellington explains, "what parts of the brain are responsible for things such as memory, language, attention, emotion and the like.”

It also asks, she continues, “what happens to our thinking when parts of the brain are damaged, how does the brain recover from damage and what does that mean in terms of recovery of function?  It's really a field that is the marriage of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.”

While studying for her doctorate in Pittsburgh, Wellington was trained in the use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a technology that uses a magnetic field, radio waves and a computer to produce pictures of the body’s internal structures. She furthered her knowledge of the technology during her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Chicago Hospitals, where she was involved in neuroimaging/neurophysiological monitoring. Now, thanks to a relationship with Long Island’s North Shore University Hospital, she is again working with the technology.

That experience will come in handy in Budapest, where the St. John’s psychologist is hoping to be involved with the research being done by her Hungarian sponsor Dr. Valeria Csepe, renowned researcher and head of the Department of Psychophysiology in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Research Institute for Psychology. Dr. Csepe, who has done significant research on dyslexia and aphasia (a disorder in which a person loses the ability to speak and understand others although does not lose intelligence), is currently working with a new MRI system and Wellington hopes to have an opportunity to assist in that work.

Fulbright Presentation Was the Spark
It was an information meeting presented by the Fulbright organization on St. John’s Queen’s campus in Spring 2007 that motivated her to apply for a Fulbright scholarship. During that half-day workshop, which was attended by dozens of faculty members as well as administrators, information on eligibility, process and how to write and submit a winning proposal was presented.

“Following continued discussion with the Fulbright Program Officer, I decided to apply and kept my fingers crossed.”

Wellington joins a growing list of St. John’s faculty members, students and administrators who have lectured and conducted research around the globe with support from the Fulbright Scholar Program. Established in 1946 in the United States under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the program was created to “build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the rest of the world” and supports the research of U.S. faculty and other professionals who travel to a wide variety of countries each year.

Learn more about St. John’s Fulbright Recipients.