John Colombo, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Psychology

1415 Jayhawk Boulevard

426 Fraser Hall

 

Director, Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies

1000 Sunnyside Avenue

1052 Dole Human Development Center

 

 

Contact Information:

 

Psychology Department

(785) 864-4131

Schiefelbusch Life Span Institute

(785) 864-4295

Wakarusa Research Facility laboratory

(785) 312-5345

Edwards Campus laboratory

(785) 864-8590

Carlson/Colombo laboratory, Smith Center, KU Med Center

(913) 588-5743

Email

colombo@ku.edu

 

History

I received my PhD in Psychology (1981) from the State University of New York at Buffalo.   After one year at Youngstown State University (1981-1982), and six years (1982-1988) as a research associate with the Bureau of Child Research at the University of Kansas, I joined the faculty of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas in 1988, and have been a member of the Department of Psychology since January of 2002.

 

Research

My research interests are in the developmental cognitive neuroscience of attention and learning, with a special focus on early individual differences in these areas and how they relate to the typical and atypical development of cognitive and intellectual function. I conduct research in laboratories at the KU Edwards Campus and the KU Medical Center, as well as at the Wakarusa Research Facility in Lawrence.

 

Students and Postdocs

I generally admit students interested in pursuing a graduate degree in my laboratory through the Developmental or Cognitive doctoral programs in the Department of Psychology.  However, I also advise students in the Child Language Doctoral Program and in Clinical Child Psychology.    Occasionally, postdoctoral positions are available through federal research or training grants, or through fellowships funded through the Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Awards (F32 mechanism) at NIH. 

 

Collaborations

I collaborate with a number of faculty members at the University of Kansas and elsewhere.  Currently,  my collaborations include ongoing research and writing projects with the following scientists at other institutions:

Dr. Susan E. Carlson, A.J. Rice Professor of Dietetics and Nutrition, the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA

Dr. Laura Caulfield, Human Nutrition, The Johns Hopkins State University, Baltimore, MD, USA

Nelly Zavaleta, MD, Instituto de Investigaciones Nutricional, Lima (Molina), Peru

Dr. John Richards, Carolina Professor of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

Dr. Derek Houston, University of Indiana School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, USA

Dr. David Thomas, (Department of Psychology), and Dr. Tay Kennedy (Department of Nutrition), Oklahoma State University

 

Publications

A list of my publications (with some links to .pdf copies) can be obtained by clicking here.

 

 

Administrative Duties, Service, and Affiliations

 

My administrative responsibilities at the University of Kansas also include:

Director of the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies

Co-Director and Principal Investigator, University of Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (KIDDRC).

Co-Investigator and Director of the Participant Recruitment Core of the KU Center for Biobehavioral Neuroscience in Communicative Disorders

Faculty chair, Human Subjects Committee on the Lawrence Campus (HSCL). HSCL is the campus-wide institutional review board for research conducted with human subjects. The committee is administered by the University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc.

 

My primary faculty appointment is in Psychology, but I am also affiliated with the following interdisciplinary programs:

Child Language Doctoral Program

Clinical Child Psychology Doctoral Program

Neurosciences Doctoral Program

 

 

National Service

 

Secretary of the International Society for Infant Studies (ISIS)

Associate Editor for Child Development, the flagship journal of the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD)

Fellow, American Psychological Association (Division 7: Developmental Psychology)

Charter Member and Fellow, Association for Psychological Science

Member, Psychonomic Society

Editorial Board member for the following journals

Infancy

Infant Behavior and Development

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology

 

Teaching

I have taught a number of courses in various departments at the University of Kansas,

and continue to teach courses as my other duties allow.

 

 

 

NUMBER

TITLE

LAST OFFERED

ENROLLMENT

PSYC 318

Cognitive Psychology

Fall 2007

200-400

PSYC 333

Child Psychology

Spring 2007

300-500

PSYC 430

Cognitive Development

Fall 2001

50-100

PSYC 480

Independent Study

current (Fall ’08)

5-15

BIOL 449

Laboratory/Fieldwork in Human Biology

current (Fall ’08)

1-5

PSYC 770

Cognitive Development

Spring 2005

15-30

SPLH 764

Infant Development (with N. Brady and S. Barlow)

Spring 2007

10-20

PSYC 800

Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Spring 2004

5-10

PSYC 800

Cognition in Infancy

Spring 2003

5-10

PSYC 815

Design and Analysis for Developmental Research

current (Fall ’08)

10-15