Director of UNO's Callitrichid Research Center recognized for outstanding career contributions

At Spring Commencement, Chancellor Jeffrey Gold presented Dr. Jeffrey French with the Chancellor's Medal, UNO's highest honor for faculty and staff, recognizing extraordinary service to the university.

French first came to UNO in 1982 with a Ph.D. in Biological Psychology and over the years has become a recognized leader in the field of behavioral neuroscience. During his career he has published 129 co-authored refereed publications.

His five active external grants total over $26 million; grantees include National Institute of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, and Nebraska Food for Health. Dr. French’s previous grants total more than $8 million. He has established national/international collaborations with authors from UC Berkeley, University of Miami, University of Arizona, UNMC, University of Toronto, University of Tromso (Norway), among many others. He has served on numerous editorial boards and as reviewer for more than twenty journals in his field, and in 2009 he was named the “Top Reviewer” by the Editorial Board of Hormones and Behavior, the top-rated ISI journal in neuroendocrinology and behavior. For his research efforts, Dr. French was awarded the Award for Distinguished Research/Creative Activity from UNO in 1996 and the Outstanding Research/Creative Activity Award for the University of Nebraska System in 2002.

French led the development of UNO’s undergraduate neuroscience program, a program producing many well-prepared students who move on to become successful students at UNMC and other medical schools, and his students have been a majority in UNO’s successful UHOP Program. One of his current students, Sarah Carp, is only the second student in UNO’s history to earn the prestigious Ruth Kirschstein Pre-Doctoral National Research Award from NIH. Since 2010, co-authorship on his papers has included 48-graduate and 3 undergraduate co-authors. For his work with students, Dr. French was awarded the UNO Graduate Studies Mentor Award in 2015.

Some of French's other honors include Kayser Professor of Psychology (1992-1998) and Varner Professor of Psychology and Biology (2000-present) and the 1984 Distinguished Service Award from the University of Nebraska Regents.

French founded UNO's Callitrichid Research Center in 1983 and recently celebrated 30 years of continuous federal funding for marmoset research. As a part of The University of Nebraska at Omaha, under the departments of Psychology and Biology, the Callitrichid Research Center conducts research in hormones and social behavior in marmosets of the genus Callithrix.