Haase, Zhong Honored at Fletcher Awards
Undergrad Angela Zhong (left) "is a rock star who dares to ask the big questions," said her mentor, SESP professor Claudia Haase (right).
Psychological scientist Claudia Haase and undergraduate research assistant Angela Zhong, a member of Haase’s Lifespan Development Lab, were honored during a recent Fletcher Awards ceremony at Northwestern University.
The award, funded by the Fletcher Family Foundation, recognizes outstanding undergraduates for research conducted with support from a Summer Undergraduate Research Grant. Zhong received a special grant—the Lindsay Chase-Lansdale Undergraduate Summer Research Grant on Social Policy for Children and Families—for her project looking at physiological mechanisms underlying empathy in caregiver-youth interactions.
Haase, Zhong’s mentor and associate professor of human development and social policy, was awarded the Karl Rosengren Faculty Mentoring Award, which goes to the mentor of the best summer undergraduate research grant project. In 2022, Haase won the Fletcher Prize for Excellence in Research Mentorship.
In addition to working in Haase's lab, Zhong, a sophomore student in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, is studying psychology, neuroscience, data science, and the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Certificate. She first joined Haase's lab during her freshman year through the Undergraduate Research Assistant Program with the Office of Undergraduate Research.
"I’ve always been intrigued by empathic interactions within relationship dynamics, especially the ways in which people connect on both conscious and unconscious levels," Zhong said. "It was fascinating to discover that people can empathize by mirroring others’ autonomic nervous system responses. It inspired me to dive into the physiological mechanisms that underlie empathy, hoping that these understandings may help better family dynamics and improve family wellbeing."
Haase, part of a new generation of broadly trained multidisciplinary scientists, examines pathways toward happy, healthy, and meaningful development across the life span. Her work focuses on emotions in individuals, couples, parents and children, and friendships.
In addition to mentoring, teaching and doing research, Haase is a core faculty member in Northwestern’s Center for Culture, Brain, Biology. She also recently co-founded and helps direct the newly formed Chicago Consortium on Longevity. In 2024 Haase earned the Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellowship Award and was named SESP’s Outstanding Professor.
In 2023, she was one of the key organizers of Connections, a PhD preparation and community-building program for those often marginalized in higher education. The program was supported by a Daniel Linzer Grant for Diversity and Equity.
Haase is a faculty affiliate at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research, the Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences, and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. She is a faculty member at the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience program.
"One of the things I value most about working with Claudia is her role not just as a research mentor but also as a life mentor," Zhong said. "From the moment I joined the lab in my first quarter at Northwestern, she has guided me through my first independent research project and beyond. Claudia fosters such a warm, collaborative, and supportive environment, and her encouragement has meant so much to me."