Dana Haynie, professor of sociology and director of Ohio State’s Criminal Justice Research Center; and Jay Myung, professor of psychology, have been selected as Joan N. Huber Faculty Fellows for 2014 in recognition of their first-rate scholarship.

The award is in honor of emeritus professor Joan Huber, who served as dean of the social and behavioral sciences from 1984 to 1992 and as Ohio State’s senior vice president for academic affairs and provost until her retirement in 1993. Fellows are nominated by department chairs and receive an annual cash award of $6,000 a year for three years to further their research programs.

Dana Haynie is one of the nation’s leading delinquency researchers and arguably the foremost expert on delinquent peer effects. The bulk of her research focuses on the question: Why do most adolescents engage in risky behavior and what are some of the ways that social context facilitates or hinders delinquent behavior?

Taking an innovative approach to understanding adolescent problem behaviors, Haynie’s research on delinquency incorporates network data and methods to better understand one of the more important contexts of adolescent behavior, the adolescent peer group. This has allowed an exploration of how friendship networks condition the influence that friends’ behavior has on adolescent delinquency.

She is currently involved in a project that uses longitudinal friendship networks and SIENA analyses to evaluate the role of network processes for shaping adolescent risky sexual behavior. Future research plans include collaborative research to gather social network data on currently incarcerated offenders to better understand how inmate networks affect current behavior as well as post-release outcomes. Research is also underway to collect data on firearm legislation over time and space to better understand under what conditions such legislation may affect gun-related violence.

Haynie’s work appears consistently in the top-rated sociology and criminology journals including American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, and the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. She has been identified as the fifth “most prolific female scholar” in elite criminology and criminal justice journals by the Journal of Criminal Justice Education.

In addition to published research, Haynie serves as director of the Criminal Justice Research Center where she fosters a multidisciplinary community addressing crime, justice and the legal system. Haynie serves on several editorial boards, including the flagship journal, American Sociological Review. She was recently elected chair of the American Sociological Association’s section on Crime, Law and Deviance.

Haynie earned a BA in sociology from Salisbury State University; MA in sociology from Louisiana State University; and a PhD in sociology with the major area in criminology, from Pennsylvania State University.

Jay Myung is a highly accomplished mathematical psychologist who has addressed some of the most fundamental issues in computational modeling of cognition, such as how to compare and select models quantitatively, and the use of quantitative methods of identifying experimental designs that can optimally discriminate models.

Computational modeling of cognition has rapidly become an important tool for advancing the study of mind and brain and has contributed substantially to theorizing and experimentation in cognitive psychology. The overarching goal of Myung’s research is to develop and apply quantitative approaches that guide model comparison and thus improve scientific inference. This research has produced important insights into the relation between theory and data and the ways models should be selected on the basis of data, and has had major impacts on the field.

Myung has published 39 journal articles appearing in top-tiered specialty and broad-based publication outlets. Most importantly, he has published four articles in Psychological Review, the premier journal in the field. As another indication of eminence, Myung’s program of research has received support continuously from the National Institute of Mental Health since 1998 (over $3.24 million in total costs). Myung’s most recent grant application was funded for five years and $1.64 million.

Myung has served as a charter member of the NSF Methodology, Measurement & Statistics grant review panel (2001-2003) and as a charter member of the NIH Cognition and Perception study section (2009-2011). Recently, he worked for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) in Washington, DC as program officer in charge of the Mathematical and Computational Cognition Program (2011-2013). Myung has served as president of the Society for Mathematical Psychology, and is currently serving a five-year term as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, the flagship journal of the Society for Mathematical Psychology.

Myung earned a BS in physics from Seoul National University, Korea; MS in biological sciences and engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; and MS and PhD in psychology from Purdue University.