This Tuesday, June 18th, the CORE Lab’s very own Nicole Betz transformed into Dr. Nicole Betz, Ph.D.! (We’re pretty sure her essence is unchanged, though.) She presented her dissertation on “Anthropic Thinking about Global Climate Change,” a topic that was relatively unstudied before Nicole started working on her dissertation. People’s employment of cognitive construals while trying to understand the world has been researched widely in the domain of biology and other scientific subjects but Nicole’s work is truly groundbreaking, looking at the use of cognitive construals in how people understand global climate change, a threat that has become more and more pervasive over the past few decades. Nicole has put in so much hard work to this project, and no one is more deserving of this incredible honor than her! After 12 years at Northeastern, as an undergraduate, a lab manager, and then a graduate student, Nicole has most definitely made her mark at Northeastern. People from throughout the psychology department- faculty members, fellow graduate students, and a strong contingent of CORE Lab research assistants came out to show their support during her defense and afterwards to celebrate. Her incredible dedication and contributions to the CORE Lab will leave us sad to see her go, but excited to see what amazing things she will continue to accomplish in the future. Congratulations, Dr. Betz!

CORE Lab members celebrating Nicole!

Nicole presenting her dissertation, entitled “Anthropic Thinking about Global Climate Change.