Liberal Arts

Distinguished Professor of Psychology named Guggenheim Fellow

Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Judith Kroll, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Linguistics and Women’s Studies and director of Penn State’s Center for Language Science, has been named a 2013-14 Guggenheim Fellow.

Kroll is among a diverse group of 175 artists, scientists and scholars selected this year from nearly 3,000 applicants across the United States and Canada. According to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Fellows are chosen on the basis of achievement and exceptional promise. This year's Guggenheim Fellows represent 56 disciplines from 85 different academic institutions.

A renowned psycholinguist and worldwide leader in the field of bilingualism and second-language acquisition, Kroll has developed a foundational theoretical model of how language is represented cognitively. In 2012 she was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for “distinguished contributions to the fields of psychology, particularly psycholinguistic models of bilingualism, and for support and mentoring of women in science.” 

Earlier this month, the University honored her with the Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the social and behavioral sciences, and in 2009 the University recognized Kroll as co-recipient of the W. LaMarr Kopp International Achievement Award for faculty. Kroll is one of three founders of Women in Cognitive Science (WICS), a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded organization supporting the professional development of women in cognitive science and related fields, and has been central in extending these efforts internationally.

With Kroll as principal investigator, the Center for Language Science in 2010 was awarded a five-year, $2.8 million National Science Foundation grant to lead an international team of researchers studying "Bilingualism, mind, and brain: An interdisciplinary program in cognitive psychology, linguistics and cognitive neuroscience," which involves researchers from 10 universities and is supported by the NSF's Partnership for International Research and Education (PIRE).

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Kroll will "examine the consequences of second-language learning and bilingualism for the native language." Her husband, David A. Rosenbaum, also a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Penn State, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2012, deferred to 2013–2014, so that they could spend a sabbatical year together at the University of California, Los Angeles.

On WAMC Northeast Public Radio's syndicated public radio series "Academic Minute," Kroll recorded an essay highlighting CLS research on the "mental exercise" that bilingual speakers perform that positively affects their brains — and that can benefit new language learners as well. 

Now in its 89th year, the Guggenheim Foundation has granted more than $306 million in fellowships to more than 17,500 individuals, including Nobel laureates, poets laureate, winners of Pulitzer Prizes, Fields Medals and other important, internationally recognized honors. For more information, visit http://www.gf.org.

Last Updated July 28, 2017

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