CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Two University of Illinois graduate students have been named the 2012-2013 Paul D. Doolen Graduate Scholars for the Study of Aging.
Stephen Martin, of Urbana, and Brennan Payne, of Champaign, will receive $4,000 each to continue their studies in gerontology.
Martin, who won in the biological-biomedical sciences category, is enrolled in the College of Applied Health Sciences and pursuing a doctorate in kinesiology and community health.
His research focuses on the cognitive health and learning capabilities of the elderly. Specifically, he aims to discover better treatment for the elderly, who, following bacterial or viral infections, exhibit delayed recovery, elevated rates of depression and prolonged cognitive impairment compared to younger patients.
Martin received his bachelor’s degree in exercise science from the University of Puget Sound.
Payne, who won in the behavioral-social sciences category, is enrolled in the College of Education and pursuing a doctorate in educational psychology.
His research focuses on understanding how age and individual differences in adulthood affect text comprehension, and how online measures of processing reveal mechanisms of these differences. He plans to examine how training affects older adults’ language comprehension.
He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology and cognitive science from the State University of New York at Oswego, and his master’s degree in educational psychology from Illinois.
The Doolen Scholarship is awarded annually to graduate students in their second year of study, or beyond, whose principal scholarly interest is in aging.
The scholarship was established in 1986 by an endowment from the Retirement Research Foundation in Oak Park, Ill., to honor the late Paul D. Doolen, a long-time member of the U. of I. Foundation board of directors and a 1927 U. of I. graduate.
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