News: NSCA
Founding Director Ron Dahl Receives the 2026 Huttenlocher Award
February 13, 2026Ron Dahl, founding director of the CDA, has received the 2026 Huttenlocher Award. The Huttenlocher Award reflects transformative contributions to the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience that inspire future generations of researchers through unique insights. As well as CDA’s founding director, Ron is a NSCA member, pediatrician, developmental scientist, and professor of Public Health at UC Berkeley. For more than 30 years, he has worked with interdisciplinary research teams to advance understanding of child and adolescent development, behavioral/emotional health in youth, adolescent brain development, and the clinical, public health, and policy implications of this research—work that has resulted in more than 300 publications.
Press Releases
February 25, 2025: Announcing the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent’s 2024 Annual Report
January 17, 2023: New Guides Help Organizations Build Effective Youth Engagement Programs
August 16, 2021: New Report Examines Intersection of Anti-Black Racism on Youth Development
November 30, 2020: Center for the Developing Adolescent Announces New Advisory Board Members
October 1, 2020: Center for the Developing Adolescent Announces New Leadership
Stay in the Know
NSCA Member Candice Odgers Joins World’s Most Influential Scholars
November 19, 2025For the third time in her career, Candice L. Odgers, a member of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence, UC Irvine’s Chancellor’s Professor of psychology, and UC Irvine’s director of research and faculty development, has earned a spot on Clarivate’s 2025 “Highly Cited Researchers” list.
The Middle School Transition Is Tough. How Educators Can Help
November 13, 2025A new Education Week article, quoting NSCA members Joanna Williams and Rhonda Boyd during a UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent media briefing, highlights how educators can play a pivotal role in supporting early adolescents’ social, emotional, and physical needs when given systemic support and instruction informed by developmental science.
The surprising science of adolescent brains
August 20, 2025NSCA co-director Jennifer Pfeifer spoke at TEDxPortland about the fascinating science behind the developing adolescent brain, and about how “adolescence isn’t a problem to be solved; it’s a transformative period of growth and opportunity.”
NSCA Member Stephen Russell Elected to National Academy of Education
January 28, 2025Stephen Russell, NSCA member and University of Texas at Austin professor of human development and family sciences, has been elected into the National Academy of Education. Russell studies adolescent development, with an emphasis on LGBTQ+ health and wellbeing. He holds the Amy Johnson McLaughlin Administrative Chair in Human Ecology and is the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professor in Child Development at UT Austin, and he serves also as a professor of population health in the Dell Medical School.
Elections are an Opportunity for Young People and for the People Who Care About Them
November 5, 2024National Scientific Council on Adolescence member Stephen Russell tackles how to support young people during elections in a new article published by UT Austin. Russell offers a number of things that adults in young people’s lives can do to help them overcome strong emotions during these significant and sometimes uncertain events.
Do Cellphone Bans in Middle School Work? It’s Complicated.
September 26, 2024National Scientific Council on Adolescence member Jacqueline Nesi, PhD, was quoted in the recent article published by the Bay Area’s NPR and PBS member station, KQED. Nesi explains that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to smartphones for early adolescence, but research suggests that kids need “increasing independence as they age [and] there’s value in giving them opportunities to solve problems.”
When Should Kids Get a Smartphone?
August 13, 2024NSCA member Jacqueline Nesi attempts to answer the question, ‘When Should Kids Get a Smartphone?’ in her new op-ed published in Scientific American. Although research shows there is no “right” age to give a child a smartphone because the “research consistently demonstrates that the ways in which children respond to technologies are highly individualized,” Dr. Nesi provides some interesting facts and suggestions about how to give young people technology in a way that supports healthy development.
What the Surgeon General’s Advisory Says About Social Media for Kids
May 25, 2023Prof. Jacqueline Nesi, part of the leadership of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health and member of the NSCA, talked with Washington Post reporter Teddy Amenabar about putting the Surgeon General's social media advisory into context.
Dr. Anthony Burrow is One of Four Cornell Faculty Awarded with Endowed Professorships
August 25, 2021National Scientific Council on Adolescence member Dr. Anthony Burrow was named the Ferris Family Associate Professor of Life Course Studies in Cornell’s newly formed Department of Psychology. Congratulations, Tony!