UCR psychologist receives award

The Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust has awarded UC Riverside Professor of Psychology Howard Friedman $25,000 for serving as a mentor and guide for students whose work has prompted beneficial change in the community.

“The Beckman Award is to benefit professors ‘who have inspired their students to make a difference in their communities.’ That is, their teaching has inspired their students to benefit the community at large, and they have established lasting concepts and movements to the benefit of the community,” said Friedman in an interview with the Highlander. “In my case, it was for developing and bringing important, influential ideas from health psychology to students and to the public…What could be better than an award for inspiring students in making a difference in the community?”

Friedman’s work has inspired many students to work toward their goals to become medical doctors, psychologists and public health workers. Despite the fact that he is a psychology professor, Friedman has worked with numerous students in UC Riverside’s biomedical and pre-medical programs. The findings and research that these students receive from working with Friedman are used to enrich their knowledge in the medical field.
“The greatest thing about being a professor is having wonderful, motivated students, and being able to show them the research process and turn them on to new ideas that will improve the physical and psychological well-being of themselves and their communities,” stated Friedman.

Friedman is one of 15 professors from American universities that have been honored by the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award Trust. He is the very first University of California researcher that has been given the award since the program was conceived two years ago. The 15 award winners this year were chosen by representatives from Wells Fargo, the American Psychological Association, Bryn Mawr College and Columbia