International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology Announces Shields for Dirk Hellhammer Award

Grant Shields, an assistant professor of psychological sciences at the U of A, has been awarded the 2024 Dirk Hellhammer Award from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, or ISPNE, which has recognized distinguished young investigators since 2000.

Shields is recognized for his work in psychoneuroendocrinology on the effects of stress on episodic memory and executive functions. Receiving the Dirk Hellhammer Award has been a milestone goal for Shields since his undergraduate years.

“The research conducted by those in ISPNE was exactly the kind of research that I hoped to do one day,” Shields said. “Receiving this award says to me that my work is recognized as valuable by the specific scientific community whose opinion I value the very most. I am ecstatic!”

Shields completed his Ph.D. in psychology with a concentration in cognition and cognitive neuroscience, as well as postdoctoral training in clinical neuroscience, at the University of California, Davis. Shields employs a variety of methods to address questions of interest, including acute stress manipulations, ELISAs of hormones and markers of inflammatory activity, fMRI, computational cognitive modeling, design of novel paradigms and tasks, and meta-analysis.

The award specifically recognizes Shields’ forthcoming publication in Psychoneuroendocrinology, “Acute Immune System Activation Exerts Time-Dependent Effects on Inhibitory Control: Results of Both a Randomized Controlled Experiment of Influenza Vaccination and a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.”

This study highlights the importance of understanding cognition through both a controlled experiment and meta-analysis on the influence of immune system activation on inhibitory control. The study points out that, in addition to broader cultural and social contexts and other physiological states, immune processes exert profound influences on our cognitive abilities.

The Hellhammer Award was renamed in 2021 to honor Dirk Hellhammer (1947-2018) who was a pioneer in the field of psychoneuroendocrinology, contributing some of most important and enduring progress, from the Trier Social Stress Test to the characterization of the cortisol awakening response.

This story also appeared in the University of Arkansas News publication.