One of the best ways to identify melanoma is using the ugly duckling sign (UDS) technique. The UDS technique teaches patients to look for the “ugly duckling” – a mole that is atypical for the patient. You can see HCAT Lab’s new UDS brochure and pamphlet here.
HCAT Lab develops innovative materials to help patients identify melanoma, including patient brochures, pamphlets, and videos. We recently completed a series of studies that yielded new materials to teach patients how to identify melanoma using the ABCDE technique. You can read more about the materials, and download them here.
Science spotlights a small number of studies each month that are published in other journals. HCAT Lab was excited to learn that our preprint research, published in Public Understanding of Science, was featured in the November 2024 issue of Science. What is a ‘preprint,’ anyway? Only about one-third of U.S. survey respondents correctly described preprint…
Yi Liao, PhD student and HCAT Lab Associate Director, defended her comprehensive exams in September 2024. Yi wrote her comprehensive responses over the summer during her 30-day exam window. During her defense, Yi demonstrated an excellent mastery of the literature and impressed her committee with thoughtful and deep responses. Now that she has completed the…
Dr. Dallin Adams has joined the faculty at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Adams will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mass Communication. Dr. Adams led HCAT lab’s biophys research program during his time at the University of Utah, and was an award winning teacher in the strategic communication sequence. His laughter and…
HCAT presented multiple papers at NCA 2023, including a Top Paper in the Mass Communication Division. The manuscript reported the results of longitudinal message experiment focused on replotting. May, K., Lillie, H. M. Ratcliff, C. L., & Jensen, J. D. (2023, November). Enacted replotting, narrative persuasion, and colorectal cancer: A longitudinal message experiment with U.S.…
HCAT routinely presents papers at the Broadcast Education Association (BEA). At BEA 2023, we were honored with a Top Paper in the Research Division. Led by Yi Liao, the manuscript reported the results of message experiment testing the theory of empathetic authenticity. Liao, Y., Adams, D. R., Owens, C., & Jensen, J. D. (2023, April).…
Dr. Helen Lillie has joined the faculty at the University of Iowa. Dr. Lillie will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. It was such a pleasure having Dr. Lillie in HCAT lab. She led the lab through the pandemic and drove us to new levels of productivity and impact. Congratulations, Dr.…
I will be teaching COMM 3690: Making Brands Stick for Spring 2022. The course is online and open to all University of Utah students. I set the seat cap at 130. Grab a seat before they are gone! Here is a flyer for the course: COMM 3690: Making Brands Stick And here is the syllabus:…
HCAT presented multiple papers at NCA 2021, including a Top Paper in the Health Communication Division. Led by Manu Pokharel, the manuscript reported the results of biophysiological research of UV imagery. Pokharel, M., Jensen, J. D., John, K. K., Christy, K. R., Taylor-Burton, S., & Upshaw, S. (2021, November). Visual communication and skin cancer prevention:…
HCAT lab goes to Sundance Film Festival every year. It’s a wonderful chance to see films, interact with media professionals, learn about emerging technologies, and cultivate relationships with talented individuals working in AR/VR content creation. In 2021, most film festivals were either partially or entirely virtual. We started the year with Sundance and Ended with…
Both Kevin John and I bought drones recently with an eye toward developing novel content and experiences for experimental research. Kevin’s drone was fast – perhaps too fast – as it ended up crashing into a tree branch one day. It spiraled out of control and was never seen again. But he was not deterred:…
The lab noticed lots of new chicken places and we decided it was time to start trying them. So, over Summer 2021, HCAT lab carried out a “Summer of Chicken.” We would gather once a week and try different chicken places. It was a nice way to eat chicken, try new restaurants, and chat about…
In July 2021, Garth Brooks put on a concert at Rice-Eccles Stadium. It was the second stop on what was intended to be a long stadium tour. Unfortunately, COVID surged again (delta) and ended the tour. But not before he put on the greatest show in the history of Salt Lake City. Robin and I…
In 2021, Tribeca Film Festival was virtual. HCAT lab enjoyed the film festival including the VR/AR content. Virtual festivals are not the same as attending in person, but I like to put up the entire schedule on the wall of my house to make the fest come to life.
In June 2021, we hosted a summer writing retreat for faculty in the Nexus space. It was a time to learn about grant/fellowship writing, craft drafts of applications, receive feedback, and eat Duck Donuts.
I will be teaching COMM 3580: Strategic Communication & Pandemics for Fall 2021. The course is online and open to all University of Utah students. I set the seat cap at 200. Grab a seat before they are gone! Here is a flyer for the course: And here is the syllabus: If you have any…
Helen Lillie was awarded the prestigious Susan Cooper Jones Endowed Fellowship in Cancer Research. This award honors an outstanding fellow, PhD, MD or MD/PhD, who has performed exceptional cancer-focused research during their training at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The award is made possible by the generosity of the family of Susan Cooper Jones, a young mother who lost…
I am currently the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Humanities at the University of Utah. I have held that position for 6 years, and it has been very rewarding. Below, I articulate a battle plan for pursuing funding in the Humanities. Notably, this is a battle plan for scholars working in the…
Dr. Helen Lillie is an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in HCAT Lab, and she has been publishing up a storm. Her primary research program focuses on communication and emotion. Helen has published lead-authored articles in Psychology & Health, Journal of Family Communication, and a book chapter in Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: Coronavirus. All of…
HCAT just won a Utah Grand Challenge grant. This mechanism provides funding for cancer researchers to address pressing cancer issues facing the state of Utah (and beyond). Utah leads the nation in Melanoma incidence (in a bad way). Given that, our project will develop and test and innovative approaches to melanoma detection in coordination with…
Due to COVID, Sundance 2021 was virtual this year. I miss the fun and excitement of Park City, but it was also nice to watch movies from the comfort of home. Several of us plan to attend virtual SXSW this year too, including Helen Lillie and Andy King. So, there are some positives about COVID.…
Manusheela “Manu” Pokharel (Ph.D., 2019) was recently awarded the Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award from the National Communication Association. Pokharel received her doctorate in communication in May 2019 from the University of Utah and is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Texas State University. The Gerald R. Miller award…
Courtney Lynam Scherr will receive the Early Career Scholar Award from the Health Communication Division of NCA in November 2020. We are so proud of Courtney! This award celebrates early career researchers with exceptional productivity and programs. Her research on communication and genetics is outstanding, and a great representation of what health communication researchers do.…
Led by Yelena Wu, we recently won an NIH R01 grant to support a 5 year health intervention targeting sun safe behavior in Utah adolescents. The goal of the grant is to evaluate a multi-school intervention designed to decrease skin cancer. The study will run from 2020 through 2025. The intervention includes multiple components including…
Helen Lillie and I created a new course for Fall 2020 – COMM 3580: Strategic Communication & Pandemics. It is an online course that is open to all students at the University of Utah. We are looking forward to teaching it!
HCAT won funding from the Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease Initiative (i3) at the University of Utah. The funding provides support for a repeated, cross sectional study that will track perceptions of COVID communication across 18 weeks. Notably, we are interested in whether people felt COVID messages were exaggerated. HCAT members Andy J. King (Iowa…
After two years as a postdoctoral fellow in HCAT lab, Sean Upshaw will join the faculty in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. Sean will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising at Moody beginning July 2020!
One of our passions is attending Sundance Film Festival every year. It’s actually a lab activity. This year, four of us enjoyed opening night Sundance. And Helen Lillie and I hit the festival pretty hard several days in a row, including one epic day where we tried to watch movies from before sunrise until deep…
HCAT lab received some great news in January: a paper we submitted to the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) conference will receive a top paper award. Specifically, our paper, “Who is more vulnerable to visual manipulation?: Traits and individual differences related to the visual manipulation test,” was named the 1st Place Winner in the Research Division Paper open…
Chelsea Ratcliff will join the faculty at the University of Georgia. She will be an Assistant Professor in the Grady College of Communication and Journalism beginning July 2020!
Several years ago, HCAT published an article focused on cancer information overload (CIO). In that article, we proposed a measure for the construct, examined psychometric properties, and compared it to Powe’s measure of cancer fatalism. As a follow-up, we recently published another article examining a refined version of the CIO scale. Both articles can be…
HCAT lab is excited to announce that Manusheela Pokharel accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Health Communication in the Department of Communication at Texas State University. Congrats Manu!
In Summer 2019, HCAT lab collected 7 new datasets. Rachael Katz was working on a new CIO dataset for her MA project. Helen Lillie launched the third study in the melanoma death narratives research program. Sean Upshaw developed stimuli to help underserved populations identity a rare form of melanoma (ALM). Liz Giorgi and Julia Berger…
Helen Lillie completed her Ph.D. in May 2019 at the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. She joined HCAT lab as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow shortly thereafter. Welcome Helen!
For most of the 2018-2019 school year, HCAT lab was busy training. We had several new lab members and that equates to lots of time learning to use the ultraviolet (UV) camera and the biophysiological equipment. Manu was in charge of all that training, and we kept her moving around the clock. As the training…
With the NCA submission deadline looming, HCAT lab decided to have a day retreat in the new Gardiner Commons building. What a great building! We arrived at 9 am and wrote until 5 pm. I’m always surprised at how much we get done in a single day devoted to writing. This will be the first…
Once again, HCAT lab hit Sundance Film Festival hard. We had tickets to five different opening night shows and went to films every day of the festival. The photos tell the story.
Manu published the first article from her dissertation in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. The article compared the persuasive impact of five types of skin cancer visuals, including ultraviolet photos. She found that ultraviolet photos increase fear, relative to other skin cancer visuals, and that fear mediates the pathway between exposure to ultraviolet photos and…
The 2018 HCAT Writing Retreat was held in Adobe House (for the second year in a row). Dr. Strange Jensen appeared to introduce the retreat. Find out more here.
Dr. Sean Upshaw recently joined HCAT lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow after completing his PhD at Howard University in health communication. Sean has a background in graphic design and illustration with a BPS in Biomedical Illustration from the University of Memphis. As an HCAT Postdoctoral Fellow, Sean will work on designing and evaluating innovative…
Kevin John, Manu, Jay, Jor, and I attended an amazing Real Salt Lake game versus the LA Galaxy. Real won 6 to 2 and, most important of all, we all won free haircuts. Why? If Real scores 3 goals, then all ticket holders win a free haircut. It’s amazing.
All our summer grant writing is paying off. We just received word that our NIH P30 grant will be funded this cycle. This grant will fund a state-wide survey of Utah adults to study a number of cancer-related variables, including cancer information overload. The opportunity to continue our research on cancer information overload is…
HCAT lab had another writing retreat. In August 2018, we headed to Chicago for the glorious 5 day retreat. Five days! It was amazing.
Our house was a small mansion located just north of Chicago. We were told that the house was once owned by Chief Keef. I’m not sure if that story is true, but we decided to name it the Keef House.
We ate deep dish pizza, put post-it notes on the walls to track progress, and worked, worked, worked. Nick made salmon one night. Jake didn’t sleep.
The Keef House writing retreat was hosted by Courtney Scherr and Lisa Guntzviller. It was one of the best retreats of all time.
My grandma Myrtle Wienke used to make the best chocolate pudding. Sometimes she would poor it into a graham cracker crust and serve it as chocolate pie. She taught my mom to make that pie, and my mom taught me. I guess you could say it is a family recipe. I make it at thanksgiving,…
HCAT lab was featured in Sky Magazine (again). Sky Magazine is the magazine that you encounter on Delta flights. In the summer, they like to do stories that talk about skin cancer prevention. Here is the story that features HCAT from June 2018: Tailor-made Cancer Care
We’ve been writing lots of grants this summer: two R01s, a P30, a DP2 supplement, and several R03s. Summer is often a great time for us to develop grants. So far, we’ve met every week (or thereabouts) and had some amazing brainstorming sessions. I’m excited to see how these ideas evolve over the months ahead.
Every year, NIH New Innovators are invited to Bethesda to present our research. This year, I presented some of our work on UV photography. We were the first poster visible through the door of the session. The face of the symposium, if you will. 🙂
Manu will attend the NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar in July 2018 at Vanderbilt University. She will present all three studies from her dissertation program, and work to refine the project for the job market. NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar
Kate hopped the pond and attended ICA in Prague. While there, she presented HCAT’s research on parasocial interactions and HIV stigma. In that research line, we evaluate the CDC’s PSA campaign designed to reduce HIV stigma. *This was an article we wrote at the 2017 HCAT writing retreat.
Most summers I teach an introductory graduate stats course (HEDU 7103). I jokingly call it stats zero as it is designed to prepare students for future stats training. It’s wonderful to teach stats in the summer. It is exhausting, but you really get to see growth in the students. Summer teaching is my favorite.
In addition to my research and teaching duties, I currently serve as the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Humanities. I was appointed to this post by Dean Dianne Harris in 2015; Dianne is now a Senior Program Officer with the Mellon Foundation. In Spring 2017, I was asked to present a snapshot…
If you ran into a lab member in March, then we probably looked busy. And Jake was definitely drinking some form of caffeine. That’s because we were working hard to get 7 article submitted to 2 different conferences. The end of March is home to the submission deadline for the National Communication Association (NCA) and…
HCAT has lots of research in progress. We are writing IRBs, designing studies, collecting and analyzing data, and writing manuscripts. It’s great to have so much activity in the lab. Recently, I started using post-it notes to keep track of all the studies in progress. It helps me to visually track the studies and it…
Kate Christy has agreed to join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. She will begin her career there as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2018. Kate is currently a postdoc on HCAT lab. She has held this position since July 2016. She joined HCAT after completing her PhD at Ohio State University. …
Manu successfully defended her prospectus on February 7th, 2018. In HCAT lab, the prospectus defense is a cumulative process that builds on the comprehensive exams and the preprospectus. Her next, and final, meeting is the dissertation defense. Manu’s dissertation consists of three studies: a meta-analysis, a large visual communication experiment, and a biophysiological lab experiment.…
We love to go to Sundance Film Festival each year because (1) it is awesome, (2) it is nearby – Park City, UT), and (3) it is a wonderful opportuunity to learn about cutting edge communication technology (e.g., VR and AR). Sundance is approximately 11 days long and the lab was out and about the…
Mindy Krakow’s excellent dissertation research on death narratives was recently published in Health Psychology. This research is part of a larger program that seeks to systematically investigate and compare stories where characters live (survivor narratives) or die (death narratives). We start with the assumption that both nareative forms can exert influence; the question is when…
HCAT went to the premiere of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Once again, we attended the fan event version. Several folks from Entertainment Arts & Engineering joined us, and we spent most of the afternoon at the Jordan Commons eating food and preparing for the movie. Jor and KKJ became celebrities as they were featured,…
The lab just purchased a 16 lens Light camera. We were on the waiting list for about 2 years. This camera takes 16 shots at once so it is a cutting edge item. It might be the solution to several key problems facing our research. Fingers crossed. Excited to see what it can do.
HCAT headed out to the fan event showing of Thor:Ragnarok. We loved the swag and the comfy seats. The 6 pm showtime was also great. Looking forward to the next one (Star Wars: The Last Jedi).
We just found out our 2017 publication in Risk Analysis was selected as a best article by the editors. The article is: Jensen, J. D., Pokharel, M., Scherr, C. L., King, A. J., Brown, N., & Jones, C. (2017). Communicating uncertainty to the public: How amount and source of uncertainty impact fatalism, backlash, and overload.…
Once again, HCAT lab hosted a writing retreat in beautiful Park City, UT. The writing retreat was October 11th – 14th, 2017. The attendees were Lisa Guntzviller, Andy King, Courtney Scherr, Kevin K. John, Manusheela Pokharel, Chelsea Ratcliff, Kaylee Crossley, Katheryn Christy, Hannah Badal, Kevin Coe, and Brandon Rivera-Melo. We missed Rob Yale (a lot).…
Utah has the highest rate of melanoma in the U.S. Given that, Deseret News recently published a long-form story about melanoma in the…
Every HCAT writing retreat begins with an roundtable session where attendees detail what they will be working on. Typically, the roundtable is led by Jake, but this year, in honor of the 30yh anniversary of The Princess Bride, it was led by the Dread Professor Jensen. He told attendees to “work hard, submit manuscripts” as…
Year 2 of my NIH New Innovator grant is coming to a close. This is a 5 year grant, so we still have a long way to go. I’m writing our annual report, and it’s amazing how much we’ve done…and how much we still have to do. A 5 year project is a program of…
The first article from Kevin John’s dissertation was just published in the Journal of Health Communication. In that article, Kevin articulates a framework for studying how visual images might impact visual skill (what he labels the visual skill acquisition model). He then demonstrates how the…
HCAT decided to host a day retreat during the AEJMC conference in Chicago. The retreat was held in Courtney’s lab space in downtown Chicago which happened to be a few short blocks from the conference hotel. After writing all day, the lab ventured off to the Barcade for fun and drinks. We ate popsicles with…
Manusheela completed her comprehensive exams on June 16th, 2017, after 4 weeks of intense writing. Her dissertation program focuses on visual health communication. Congrats Manu!
Sky Magazine published an article about “The future of Early Detection” which mentioned HCAT’s research on mole crowdsourcing. So, if you are flying Delta, then look for HCAT in the clouds.
I will receive the Krieghbaum Under 40 Award at the the AEJMC awards ceremony, August 11th at 10 am. It’s a wonderful honor, and all are welcome to come out celebrating with us in Chicago. The Krieghbaum Under-40 Award honors AEJMC members under 40 years of age who have shown outstanding achievement and effort in all…
In June, I hosted the first College of Humanities writing retreat. Twelve faculty and post-docs participated, and spent 3 days writing grant/fellowship applications at a ski resort in Park City, UT. We plan to run another retreat in June 2018.
Kate Christy recently published an article evaluating how admiration and memorability impact the processing of mammography PSAs. The research was published in the Journal of Health Communication (one of our favorite outlets!) and provides evidence that admired models have greater impact on intentions…
HCAT likes to go to movies. To that end, we formed Mug Club – a group of movie loving folks who like to go to premieres (and all have megaplex mugs). Mug Club is a mixture of HCAT members, GApp lab fold, and faculty from communication. On May 4th, 2017, Mug Club headed out to…
HCAT member Robert N. Yale passed away April 2017 following a courageous battle with gastric cancer. He was a key member of our lab, and a great friend to all of us. He taught us the art of photography, how to purchase excellent tech, and a love of food. He helped build the HCAT writing…
Ever since the 2013 Writing Retreat, we’ve been obsessed with shuffleboard. Given that, I purchased a shuffleboard last winter. Today, I upgraded the table by purchasing 6 speeds of shuffleboard powder. Yes, there are different speeds. Shuffleboard is a great activity for researchers as you can talk shop while playing it. Needless to say, our…
The psych reactance crew won the top paper at the DC Health Com Conference!
HCAT headed to Altamont, UT (2 hours from Salt Lake City) to collect data for the SUN study. We were joined by two graduate students from Yelena Wu’s lab (Bridget and Ayesha). Altamont has a beautiful new high school, and both the teachers and kids were great hosts. A thunderstorm appeared just as we were…
KKJ and I hatched a plan: meet at the Jordan Commons theater at 9 pm, work on our revise & resubmits (R&Rs), and then go to the movie Logan at 11 pm. Jordan Commons has a big courtyard full of tables, we can fill our megamugs there cheap, and it’s about halfway between our respective…
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=42993197&nid=148&title=u-researchers-can-study-inversions-year-round-with-60k-camera Our Immersion Lab was featured on KSL. They visited the lab to view our Ozo, and learn more about our air quality video.
Our lab has been with ultraviolet (UV) imagery for several years. We are currently conducting several studies were we study public reaction to these images. Here is a photo of me in visible light. And here is a photo in UV light.
My lab recently purchased a Nokia Ozo pro grade immersive camera. As a test of the camera, we decided to film both a good air quality day in the valley (August 30th, 2016 – a green day), and a bad air quality day (January 1, 2017 – an orange day). We filmed the valley from a trail just below the H Rock. The video begins with a good air quality day (August 30th) and then transitions to a bad air quality day (January 1st).
The Sundance Film Festival just launched a new initiative focused on climate change and environmental awareness. The 2017 festival showcases 14 innovative projects devoted to this theme, including An Inconvenient Sequel (which HCAT members attended last night!). Our air quality immersive video parallels Sundance’s initiative as well as their groundbreaking work in VR.
Click here to view our video on YouTube. Make sure you have the YouTube app downloaded in advance:
The Sundance Film Festival is a wonderful gathering of media and communication professionals in Park City, UT. As such, HCAT lab spends quite a bit of time going to shows, meeting with industry folks, and checking out the latest gadgets. For example, last year we were introduced to the Nokia Ozo camera at Sundance, and…
HCAT lab recently purchased a biophysiological measurement system from iMotions. The system allows us to measure eye movements, emotional response, and heart rate (among others). We’ve been interested in biophysiological measurement for years, and have conducted several eye tracking studies via the labs at Texas Tech (Andy King) and BYU (Kevin John). But now we…
In Fall 2016 I taught a 7000-level grad seminar called Communication Theory. Ten wonderful grads were in the class, including MA and PhD students. We spent the semester exploring constructs and practicing how to think more abstractly. I used immersion as a practice construct as it is both timely and enduring. The students learned how…
One of the perks of being from a state with very few people (re: I am originally from Montana) is that you sometimes get handwritten congratulation notes from the Governor. It was wonderful to receive this in the mail.
HCAT lab held another writing retreat October 12th – 16th, 2016 in Park City, UT. The writing retreat was held at a 5 bedroom house located just above main street in old town (you can rent it here). Fourteen people attended the retreat, including folks from Texas, Illinois, and Maryland. We had two research groups at the retreat: a skin cancer research group and a psychological reactance group. Both groups wrote manuscripts, analyzed data, and designed future studies.
The 2016 retreat also saw two different trips to the emergency room. Jake was in the emergency room when one of his sons developed a nasty case of parainfluenza. Kevin John ended up in the emergency room with appendicitis!
Despite these obstacles, the retreat was a huge success. We wrote from the moment the house opened on the 12th until 2 am in the morning the night of the 15th. Lisa Guntzviller led a workshop on building tables in Excel, and Jake led a workshop on the Johnson-Neyman (JN) technique.
The tattoo sleeves made a second appearance too. As folks finished papers, they were rewarded with the awesome sleeves. Nick Carcioppolo and Rob Yale weren’t able to make it this year, so we made Nick and Rob paper cutouts – and enjoyed taking crazy photos with them.
It was another wonderful writing retreat!
June is a major deadline for NIH. Given that, HCAT spends most of May and the beginning of June writing and submitting grants. This year, Manu, Chelsea, Jeremy, and I worked on 3 grants (all due mid-June). Two R21 grants, and one P30 grant. It can be exhausting, but the students also learn how to write grants by helping to put together all of the components. 
Approximately 20 years ago, I had the pleasure of participating in Montana High School Speech & Drama. I competed in Humorous Duo Acting with my good friend, Rusty Limesand. He had a great sense of humor, and an amazing threshold for physical pain (which came in handy given our love of vaudevillian comedy).
My senior year, we were lucky enough to win the state title in Humorous Duo Acting, and to take home the team state championship in Drama.
After high school, Rusty became a prison guard, and a cell extractor (they guy who removes unruly prisoners from their cells).
I went to college and won a national championship in collegiate speech and drama, before continuing forward for my Ph.D.
We were an odd pair in many ways. He was a jokester, who loved big, physical comedy. I was more cerebral, and liked writing more than anything else. I always wrote our routines, an approach that would put me against the grain in college speech and drama (where it is rare for people to write their own material).
Sadly, Rusty passed away in 2011 (in a bizarre turn, his story was part of an episode of Dateline NBC). But I still have lots of great memories of him, humorous duo, and our time together. Thinking back on it, 20 years later, it seems like another life.
Manusheela Pokharel had a manuscript accepted to the National Communication Association (NCA) convention in Philadelphia, PA. Her paper was written at our Fall 2015 writing retreat!
HCAT had a manuscript accepted to the American Public Health Association (APHA) conference in Denver, CO. The manuscript focuses on vicarious replotting in PSAs.
One of Kevin John’s students gave him a great gift: a cartoon version of himself. Kevin was developing an online course, and had been looking for an avatar to use in the online modules. Needless to say, cartoon Kevin was a big hit with the lab.
I created this infographic to teach people about federal funding of cancer research. As a cancer researcher, I would like to see more money devoted to fighting the illness of our time. But it’s more than that: I would like to see our budget parallel the problems of our society. That said, the infographic isn’t an…
Mindy Krakow and I traveled to BEA this year to present research and receive a few awards. Mindy received an award for her dissertation (congrats Mindy!) and we won a top paper in the research division (congrats us!). We also enjoyed stopping by NAB and learning more about VR equipment. Nokia was there, so it was a great opportunity to chat with them about our new camera.
Plus we went to two great shows: La Reve and Ka.
Robert Yale, HCAT lab member and Assistant Professor at the University of Dallas, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 gastric cancer. You can follow his journey here. He has all of our love and support in this battle.
I competed in collegiate forensics (also known as speech and drama) at Concordia College from 1997 – 2001. It was a great educational experience, and a wonderful way to develop as a writer.
We’ve been working on a new logo for the HCAT lab. Here’s the winner (as a jpeg; pngs below):
Here are some alternative (jpeg) versions:
And here are the vector versions (you can resize these without losing sharpness, and they have a transparent background):
The Golden Anniversary Monograph Awards were created to mark NCA’s 50th Anniversary in 1964. Originally, there were awards given to monographs and to books. The book award was deleted and later reinstated as the Diamond Anniversary Book Award. The Golden Anniversary Monograph Awards are presented to the most outstanding scholarly monograph(s) published during the previous calendar year.
My randomized controlled trial published in Social Science & Medicine was honored with the 2015 Golden Anniversary Monograph Award from NCA. You can read more about it here. You can see a list of past award winners here.
HCAT lab held another writing retreat October 8th – 15th, 2015 in Park City, UT. The writing retreat was held at a 5 bedroom house located just above main street in old town (you can rent it here). Courtney and I gave a workshop on writing NIH grants, and we also reviewed vitas and (for…
I grew up on a little farm outside of Circle, Montana. In August 2015, I took a few photos of that farm. It’s always neat to see where others are from. Given that, here’s where I am from. This is my origin place, so to speak. In super hero mythology, this would be the place I received my powers. 🙂
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We have developed a high performance, monochrome UV camera to advance research in dermatology, public health, and (interestingly enough) the documentation and discovery of historical artifacts. HCAT lab is working with several faculty on the latter initiative, including Professor Rory Becker from Eastern Oregon University. We recently used the camera to photograph specimens at the Utah Museum of Natural History, including scorpions (who glow when exposed to UV)! Rory has also used our UV camera to photograph Neanderthal caves in Croatia (photos to come).
Woolrich – the flannel shirt maker – and dogfish head brewery recently formed a partnership. The Woolrich guys came out to salt lake city for the outdoor expo, and they also hosted a big sundance party in park city. For the party, dogfish head brewed a new beer called the Pennsylvania tuxedo, an IPA infused with spruce tips. After the party, 4 kegs were leftover. The Woolrich guys didn’t want to fly them back, so they gave them to the owner of the rental house.
That guy is my neighbor.
That’s how Mindy and I ended up with several kegs of Dogfish Head. The world needs to know.![10968515_10104653968107420_6838496867614776779_n[1]](http://jakobdjensen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10968515_10104653968107420_6838496867614776779_n1.jpg)
Long, long ago in the cold land of Moorhead, MN, I gave an Honors Student Lecture. I was already an experienced public speaker – given my background in high school and college forensics – but this was, in many ways, my first academic talk. It was based on a paper I wrote for an honors…
HCAT lab held another writing retreat October 16th – 19th, 2014 in Park City, UT. The writing retreat was held at a 5 bedroom cabin just off the old town roundabout (you can rent it here). Nick Carcioppolo led a workshop on Mplus, I led a workshop on validity in confirmatory factor analysis, and we worked on 15 manuscripts, 8 of which were completed by the end of the retreat. A pool table on the top floor of the house was our relaxation sport of choice. We also enjoyed trying to ride the house elevator, which was wonderfully inconsistent. Finally, we visited Olympic Park during this retreat, and that is quickly becoming a tradition.
You can see photos from the retreat here:
In May of 2014, Professor Kevin Coe challenged me to a “beard off.” A beard off is a contest wherein two people decide to grow beards and see who has the “best” beard at the end of the day. I agreed.
Typically, a beard off is started in the fall or winter. Why? Because beards are hot. And damn are they itchy. Especially when it is hot. But Coe wanted a beard off in the summer, so we did it.
On August 8th, 2014 we declared an end to the beard off. We took these photos, then immediately went home and shaved. “Never again,” we both declared.
The photos were posted to Facebook. In a close vote, Coe was declared the beard winner. His prize? Never to grow a beard again. 🙂
HCAT wanted to go curling. But you have to take curling lessons before you can officially join the league. Oh, and you better bring your own stone. League stones are for chumps.
We had a few drinks before curling lessons. Everyone but KKJ. Only one person fell on the ice and seriously hurt his back. You guessed it: KKJ. 🙂
HCAT held a writing retreat March 14th – 17th, 2014 in Dallas, TX. Twelve faculty and grads attended the retreat. Jake led a workshop on writing grants, and we also talked a lot about publishing strategies. Jake’s consumption of Mountain Dew during the retreat reached epic levels, I think I slept a total of 2 hours. An air hockey table provided us with quite a bit of fun. A pool also occupied our time. The retreat was put on by HCAT members Rob Yale (Assistant Professor, University of Dallas) and Andy King (Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University). A great time was had by all.
This was the first retreat to have it’s own logo:
HCAT lab held another writing retreat October 11th – 14th, 2013 in Park City, UT. The writing retreat was held at a 5 bedroom cabin in Deer Valley that described itself as the Nordic House (you can rent it here). Eleven faculty and graduate students attended the retreat. I led a workshop on Lisrel and confirmatory factory analysis, Lisa Guntzviller led a workshop on bibliography software, and Rob Yale took us all out to dinner at the Blue Iguana (which would become a writing retreat tradition). We also discovered numerous quirks such as my love of high quality scrap paper and Kevin Coe’s need to have lots of gum on hand while writing. Finally, Rob Yale impressed everyone (as he tends to) with an amazing suitcase.
We worked on 12 manuscripts during the writing retreat, 7 of which were finished by end. We played an excessive amount of shuffleboard.
Once upon a time, I animated a cartoon. It was animated in the style of Chuck Jones (i.e., Road Runner artist). I created this cartoon for research on media violence. You can read the subsequent research here.
It was created using an early version of Flash. I remember working on this for days and days. I love to make things. It’s my nature.
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HCAT lab members Andy King, Nick Carcioppolo, and Jake all attended a Grant Writing Workshop hosted by NCA in Chicago. We worked furiously on grant applications, and Nosh, Dale, and Susan took us out drinking.
My undergraduate students begged me to “take a pie in the face” as part of a cancer research fundraiser. As a cancer researcher, I had to say yes. Didn’t I? I think I did.
Regardless, my students slammed several pies in my face on April 11, 2010.
In 2010, we won a subcontract on a Department of Defense/Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center Grant. Our job was to conduct research to inform the design of an HPV vaccination campaign. To that end, we created experimental stimuli to test threat-to-efficacy ratio hypotheses at the heart of EPPM research. This required the creation of lots and lots and lots of stimuli – one for each ratio combination. Here they are, provided for your use and pleasure. Seriously. Feel free to use them.
Here’s the article citation:
Carcioppolo, N.,* Jensen, J. D., Wilson, S. E., Collins, W. B., Carrion, M., & Linnemeier, G. (2013). Examining HPV threat-to-efficacy ratios in the extended parallel process model. Health Communication, 28, 20-28.
Our research on the delay hypotheses (aka, the Sleeper Effect) won a Top Paper Award in the Mass Communication Division of NCA. Jensen, J. D., Bernat, J. K., Wilson, K., & Goonwardene, J. (2009, November). Narrative persuasion and the sleeper effect: Further evidence that fictional narratives are more persuasive over time. Paper presented at…
Research sometimes requires you to buy odd things. For example, I once bought hundreds of yo-yos. I bought so many yo-yos that the company selling them designated me a “toy store.” That’s a true story.
Why was I buying all those yo-yos? We were running a study in several elementary schools, and we couldn’t pay the kids in cash. But we could give them yo-yos for doing the study. So, hundreds of yo-yos.
Notice how long my hair is. You would think this was a hair growing contest, but I believe I was just lazy. The life of an Assistant Professor.
Dan O’Keefe and I received the Distinguished Article/Book Chapter in Health Communication from NCA’s Health Communication Division. The award was for our meta-analysis of loss/gain framing research. That project took several years to complete, and yielded multiple publications, but our analysis in Journal of Health Communication seemed to have the biggest impact. I learned a…
In 2008, I journeyed to China as part of a delegation from Purdue University. We attended a Health Communication conference, met with several universities, and traveled. Fun Fact: I was a Political Science and East Asian Studies major in college. The latter focused on Chinese history, culture, and language.
Ryan Hurley and I were lucky enough to win Top Student Paper in Mass Communication at NCA in 2004. Originally, we wrote two papers: one that focused on the third person effect and another than examined the impact of reading news coverage about environmental threats, including dioxin (which, incidentally, won Top Student Paper in…
