2021 Opening Event and Awards Ceremony

The Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis (SABA) provides financial support for the field of behavior analysis. As a 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization, SABA accepts tax-deductible donations, distributes donations through grants and fellowships, and recognizes leaders in behavior analysis with its annual awards ceremony.

Award for Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis: M. Jackson Marr (Georgia Institute of Technology)
M. Jackson (Jack) Marr received his BS degree in 1961 from Georgia Tech where he studied mathematics, physics, engineering, and psychology. He received a Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a minor in physiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1966. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Georgia Tech. He is one of five founding Fellows of the Association for Behavior Analysis, a Fellow of Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) and Division 3 (Experimental Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA), a Fellow of the Psychonomic Society, and a Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences Honoree. He was elected twice (the last in 2015) to president of the Association for Behavior Analysis (ABAI), and was president of Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) of APA and the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis (SEABA). He was also APA Council member representing Division 25. He is the past editor of Behavior and Philosophy and continues to serve on its editorial board. He also serves as review editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, a position he has held since 1998. He served as the co-editor of Revista Mexicana de Análisis de la Conducta and was an associate editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst. He was experimental representative to the Executive Council of ABAI, served on the Board of Directors of The Society for the Quantitative Analysis of Behavior, and currently serves on the Board of Trustees the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. He has been particularly active in the international support and development of behavior analysis in Great Britain, Europe, Mexico, Brazil, China, and the Middle East. He was a Research Fellow in Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School, a visiting professor at the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico, and was invited to Jacksonville State University with an Eminent Scholar award. He was a Navy contractor for Project Sanguine and an AIEE Senior Fellow at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory. For over 20 years (1991-2012) he was involved through NSF grants and other support in the assessment and improvement of engineering education. This work included design of instructional systems to teach calculus-based engineering physics. Current scholarly interests include dynamical systems theory, the quantitative analysis of behavior, creativity, and theoretical/conceptual issues in behavioral analysis.

Award for Scientific Translation: Allen Neuringer (Reed College)
Allen Neuringer graduated from Far Rockaway High School in 1958, received a BA, summa cum laude, from Columbia College in 1962, and Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1967. His thesis advisor was Richard Herrnstein; most important were fellow students Howie Rachlin, Billy Baum, Bruce Schneider, Phil Hineline, Peter Killeen, Ed Fantino, Richard Schuster, and Martha DiNardo Neuringer. He was a professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, from 1970 until his retirement as MacArthur Professor of Psychology in 2008, but continued to guide research and teach an upper-division course, “Functional Variability,” until this year. Allen and his students have shown that response variability can be reinforced, much like response topography, force, and speed. Together with his student, Neal Miller, he published the first demonstration that response variability in individuals with autism can be increased and maintained by reinforcers contingent upon that variability. He also published articles on self-control, responding for food when food is otherwise freely available, music discrimination in pigeons and self-experimentation. He recently gave the plenary address at the International Quantified Self Conference. Allen lives in a forest in a house he built (from the ground up) with Martha, his partner in love, and Reed students.

Award for Dissemination: Carmen Luciano (Universidad Almeria)
Carmen Luciano received her Ph.D. from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1984. She was professor of psychology at the University of Granada from 1979 to 1993 and been professor of psychology at the University of Almeria since 1994. Her research dedication began on the experimental analysis of language. Her post-doc Fulbright research stay in Boston University and the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies was centered in studying problem-solving behavior with Skinner’s supervision. This was a critical point in her career as basic researcher. She was involved in equivalence research, rule-governed behavior and, shortly after, in RFT and ACT research. Her research lab conducts basic creative experimental-applied RFT designs for the analysis of: analogies; coherence; deictic and hierarchical framing in the context of identifying core components of metaphors; false memories; experiential avoidance; values; defusion; self and responding to one’s own behavior. Additionally, the lab designs brief ACT protocols and teaches ACT-focused analysis of the conditions under which emotions, thoughts, and valued motivation are brought to the present to build flexibility responding.

Award for Effective Presentation in the Mass Media: Carl Hart (Columbia University)
Carl Hart is the Dirk Ziff Professor of Psychology in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University. Prof. Hart has published extensively in the area of neuropsychopharmacology. He is an award-winning author. His most recent book is entitled Drug Use for Grown-ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear. Prof. Hart has lectured around the world and has appeared on multiple national television and radio shows, as well as podcasts. In 2016, the city of Miami issued a proclamation declaring February 1 “Dr. Carl Hart Day.”

“As with most anyone who lives long enough, the course of my career is marked by many turns into new avenues, some quite unanticipated.”
M. Jackson Marr

Award for Programmatic Contributions: Center for Autism and Related Disorders
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) was founded in 1990 by Doreen Granpeesheh, Ph.D., BCBA-D, at the suggestion of O. Ivar Lovaas, Ph.D., who wanted the participants in his groundbreaking study to have an ABA program to attend when they aged out of his University of California, Los Angeles research. What began as a one-woman practice in Westwood, California, grew into the largest ABA provider in the world—with more than 260 clinic locations in 33 states. Having practiced, researched, and advocated for ABA for over 40 years, Dr. Granpeesheh provides a view of the earliest years of behavioral applications to the treatment of autism, and speaks of the ways in which access to ABA has grown, largely as a result of the onset of health insurance funding. Dr. Granpeesheh shares the lessons learned in the field, describes how data-driven decisions continue to shape behavior analysis, and shares her insights on future directions.