🎉 Congratulations to our lab manager, Yidi Wang, for receiving the Top Student Paper Award in the Communication and Social Cognition Division at the 2025 National Communication Association (NCA) Conference! Yidi also earned the 🏆 Graduate Student Mentorship Award, and we could not be prouder of her achievements!
She has stood out not only for her outstanding scholarship but also for her deep dedication to mentoring and supporting undergraduate students. As a PhD student and lab manager, she has worked closely with more than 40 undergraduate research assistants, fostering a research environment in which students feel welcome, supported, and inspired to grow. Through thoughtful onboarding, hands-on training, individualized mentorship, and steady encouragement, she helps students develop both research skills and confidence in themselves. She is especially attentive to students’ different backgrounds, goals, and experience levels, and she works hard to make research both rigorous and accessible. Her mentorship reflects not only her excellence as a scholar but also her generosity, compassion, and lasting commitment to student development. Yidi, you truly deserve these awards👏!
If you’d like to learn more about the neural mechanisms of persuasive messaging, feel free to reach out to her!
📄 Paper Title: Mapping the Neural Mechanisms of Persuasive Health Messaging: A Narrative Review of fMRI Applications, Methods, and Challenges