The psychology department at the University at Buffalo is one of the most popular for undergraduate students, with over 1700 enrolled in the major. The department could also be considered one of the more distinguished - as of 2005, the clinical psychology program was ranked fifth in the nation, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
For the past six years, the psychology department has been traveling the path of success with Chairman Paul Luce, Ph.D. While at the wheel, Luce hopes to continue the success by expanding the top-notch faculty, working with international programs and involving more undergraduate students with assisting faculty research.
Born in the small town of Chillicothe, MO and raised in the town of Sedalia, he was the youngest of three. Luce graduated from Smith-Cotton High School in 1976.
"That was the bicentennial year," Luce said, "We had to wear red-white-and-blue robes and tassels."
Luce attended William Jewell College, a small private school in Missouri, where he majored in psychology and minored in French. He did not initially intend on using his two studies together as a career.
"I like intellectual activity," Luce said. "I like the fact that college professors could shape their own destiny."
It was not until the end of his undergraduate studies that he knew he wanted to enter graduate school using both his major and minor for his career. At Indiana University, Luce focused his research on Psycholinguistics: syntax and speech.
Luce's wife, Jan Charles-Luce, an associate professor in the Communicative Disorders and Sciences department at UB, also attended Indiana University for graduate school. Together with her studies in linguistics and his focus on psychology, they combined their research and published their findings.
After completing their studies at Indiana University in 1988, the two married and moved to Buffalo where they've lived ever since. UB's status as an excellent research university was attractive to Paul Luce. The school was also able to arrange a position for his wife, as well. He was excited to move to a new place and said that the Missouri winters had prepared him for dealing with Western New York snow.
Although he was born and raised in the west, Luce now considers himself a Buffalonian. When they have the time, the Luces enjoy traveling the world, and Paul said he particularly enjoyed Southeast Asia and Africa.
Last Christmas, Luce traveled to Singapore to visit the Psychology department's latest international program at Singapore's Institute of Management. He has been overseeing the new program where students are able to obtain a UB psychology degree from Singapore.
Started only last summer, the new program gives UB students the chance to study abroad in Singapore, and Singapore students have the opportunity to study in a United States-style curriculum.
Luce said that 60 percent of the faculties in Singapore have to be from the United States.
Along with the establishment of the Singapore program, Luce has been overseeing the expansion of his faculty by hiring more people like Stephen Tiffany, an Empire Innovation Professor.
"Just recently we hired one of the world's leading researchers of drug cravings," Luce said.
As the faculty grows, they are encouraged to include undergraduate students in their research projects. Luce is working on reformatting the department. Luce hopes that by reformatting the department, he can provide students a more one-on-one experience with the faculty.
Luce feels that his department is one of the most popular because it has some of the best 100-level instructors. Not to mention that most of the faculty is internationally renowned for being from the top of the field.
Those students looking into the psychology program should not be wary of the large classes, according to Luce, as the upper-level classes are a lot smaller and more personal.
A psychology degree could take students many places after graduation; besides a career in psychology, Luce has seen students go into careers such as law, business, criminal justice and teaching.
"The psychology major is a good major," Luce said. "It is so much more than just big classes. It is a good basic degree to go into all sorts of things."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
