News Release

DeFriese Award Winners Announced

June 6, 2002

The Institute on Aging has announced this year's winners of the Gordon H. Defriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards. These annual awards honor Dr. DeFriese's thirty-year distinguished career in the conduct and development of research to improve the quality of lives of older North Carolinians, and especially to his unwavering commitment to developing and supporting the careers of his colleagues. The awards are given to one junior faculty/staff member and one doctoral student from UNC Chapel Hill who demonstrate outstanding promise and a commitment to aging research.

Ute J. Bayen, PhD, is this year's faculty/staff awardee. Dr. Bayen has been an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology since 1996. She has been involved in numerous research projects related to memory performance in older adults, and since 2000, she has been the Principal Investigator for a five-year, NIA-funded RO1-grant to study adult age differences in recognition memory and decision-making. She has also been actively involved in undergraduate and graduate courses in the psychology of aging, serving on the curriculum development committee of the American Psychological Association Division 20 (Adult Development and Aging) and on the Advisory Board of the interdisciplinary, graduate Certificate in Aging here at UNC. Dr. Bayen received her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies with an emphasis on aging from The Pennsylvania State University.

Ms. Kimberly Reynolds is this year's doctoral student awardee. Ms. Reynolds is a student in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, where she is currently working on research projects that will form the basis of her dissertation on the topic of racial disparities in end of life care. As a research assistant, she has participated in research projects focusing on the needs and quality of care of dying older patients, and the preparation of training manuals for nursing staff to providing improved quality of care to this population. Further, she has served as a research assistant on a Soros Foundation/Open Society Institute-funded Project on Death in America research effort. She also has been a student intern with the Carolinas Center for Hospice and End of Life Care, working on both community outreach and policy-related activities, and a student intern in the Leadership in an Aging Society Summer Program of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development.

Congratulations to both recipients! The award recognition ceremony will be held at a later date during the next academic year.

More information on the Gordon H. Defriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards, including past winners, is available from our Funding & Grants page.