The Oscar Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellowship in Developmental Science offers two years of mentored research opportunities with an experienced and funded researcher from the Department of Psychology at San Diego State University (SDSU). During the two-year Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellowship, funding is provided for the Kaplan Fellow to think, write, participate in the research of an established laboratory, and develop a research program with guidance from a team of experienced researchers. The overarching goal of the Fellowship is to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the highly arena of university research and teaching.
This fellowship is funded from an endowment made available by the family of Dr. Oscar J. Kaplan, a distinguished developmental scientist specializing in gerontology. Dr. Kaplan has been called the “father of geriatric psychology”, was instrumental in establishing the Western Gerontological Society, and served as president of Division 20 (now called the Division of Adult Development and Aging) of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Kaplan was a faculty member in the Department of Psychology from 1946 to 1994, serving as Chair of the department on two different occasions. He is considered the architect of the Department of Psychology at SDSU. The Oscar Kaplan Postdoctor
al Fellowship in Development Science honors the life and work of Dr. Kaplan by providing young scholars the research and teaching opportunities necessary for launching productive careers in the developmental sciences.
Kaplan Postdoctoral Fellows work closely with an established and productive scholar in the Department of Psychology at SDSU, where we offer a dynamic research community that is exceptionally collaborative and supportive of new investigators. In Fiscal Year 2019, we were ranked #15 in the U.S. and #1 in California among psychology department of all public and private universities in terms of NIH funding with $8.6 million. We are also proud of having one of the top ranked APA accredited PhD programs in clinical psychology in the U.S., which is offered jointly with the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. Rankings calculated by the National Research Council (NRC) placed the SDSU/UCSD joint doctoral program among the top three psychology doctoral programs in the U.S.
Within the Psychology Department are several established research laboratories in the developmental sciences, including the Center for Behavioral Teratology, the Lifespan Human Senses Laboratory, the Child and Adolescent Anxiety and Mood Program, the Infant and Child Development Lab, the Culture and Child and Adolescent Services Lab, the South Bay Latino Research Center, Aging and Dementia Laboratory, the Developmental Psychopathology Laboratory, and the Brain Development Imaging Laboratory. In addition, many faculty members have established collaborative relationships with researchers at other universities and nationally recognized research institutions, including the University of California – San Diego, the University of San Diego, the Salk Institute, the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady’s Children’s Hospital (CASRC), the Center Research in Mathematics and Science Education (CRMSE), the San Diego Prevention Research Center, the UCSD Moores Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Oregon Social Learning Center. Needless to say, research opportunities abound for post-doctoral fellows within the beautiful surroundings and temperate climate of San Diego, California.