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March 22, 2019
Children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have adept and competent emotional processing skills when viewing their mother’s faces. They are just as “in-tune” with their mother’s feelings and emotions as children without ASD. Co-author  Nancy Aaron Jones, Ph.D., an associate psychology professor and director of the  WAVES Laboratory in FAU’s College of Science, and a member of FAU’s  Brain Institute explained this finding may indicate greater potential for children with ASD to learn and socialize with people they know rather than with strangers.
FAU is now an official chapter of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), a global network inspiring bold leadership, research and solutions that advance women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). The FAU AWIS chapter is composed of 25 members and partner organizations across five colleges at the university, including the  Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College

Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College students, Emily Willson and Milena da Silva were awarded "Florida Fellowships," by Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience during Sunposium, an annual Neuroscience Conference. The students were invited to present their research on memory for events during a two-day poster session. Their work is supported by an FAU Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry undergraduate research grant.
Wilkes Honors College Invited to Hear Robert Putnam at Rappaport Center in Stuart
Chris Strain, Ph.D., Professor of American Studies, FAU's Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College and students Gianni Croci, Nicholas Cathcart, Reilly Stanton, and Sara Haman attended a lecture and discussion featuring Robert D. Putnam, a Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. Putnam addressed, "The Crumbling American Dream- and how to Renew It," on March 12 at the Rappaport Center in Stuart. 
Ascend: STEM Outreach Program
Thanks to a generous gift from Alice Hudson, ’77, students studying at the FAU Brain Institute and the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College are transforming the future for kids in Palm Beach County. Several times per year, our students visit the after-school classrooms at the Edna W. Runner Tutorial Center for “Fun Fridays” — interactive lessons focused on science, technology, engineering and math. It’s an opportunity for youth to learn from FAU students and vice-versa!
Upcoming Events
Monday, March 25, 9 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Wilkes Honors College at FAU Jupiter Campus

Friday, March 29, 4-5:30 p.m.
Els Center of Excellence, Jupiter  RSVP
Saturday, March 30, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.
South Florida Science Center & Aquarium
Thursday, April 4, 12-1:00 p.m.
SR-258
Florida Atlantic University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU’s John D. MacArthur Campus , located in downtown Abacoa offers a variety of upper-division and graduate course. The campus houses the Academy for Community Inclusion , Center for Autism and Related Disabilities , College of Education , Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College , John D. MacArthur Campus Library and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute , the largest lifelong learning program in the nation. FAU Jupiter unites scientists and students in research and training programs and leverages FAU’s close affiliations with Scripps Florida and the Max Planck Florida Institute , also located on the campus. As part of this effort, the university-wide Brain Institute launched in 2016 and is a hub of cutting-edge, multidisciplinary neuroscience activity that builds on existing neuroscience centers and programs within the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine , Charles E. Schmidt College of Science and Center for Molecular Biology and Biotechnology offers research and training programs in molecular biology and biotechnology and serves as a link between FAU and other institutions and industries in this field.