July 24, 2019 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers were announced earlier this month. Suzanne Adlof, an associate professor in the Arnold School’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (COMD), was one of two individuals from the state of South Carolina and the only University of South Carolina researcher to be included in the list.
The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers was established in 1996 to acknowledge individual contributions to the advancements of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and community service. The highest honor bestowed by the United States Government to outstanding scientists and engineers who are beginning their independent research careers, this award is given to those who have demonstrated and show exceptional promise for leadership, public education, and community outreach in science and technology.
Adlof’s research, which she conducts in the South Carolina Research on Language and Literacy (SCROLL) Lab, focuses on understanding language and reading impairment. She also works to develop effective interventions to improve literacy outcomes. Adlof’s efforts have resulted in massive data collection from thousands of participants in order to answer questions about the underlying characteristics of language and reading impairment and how to improve long-term academic outcomes.
Since joining the Arnold School’s COMD department in 2011, Adlof has garnered over $5.7 million in external research funds as a Principal Investigator (three grants from the National Institutes of Health, one from the U.S. Department of Education, and four privately funded awards). Her work has included projects to learn more about children with developmental language disorder and dyslexia and the development of an online tutor to accelerate vocabulary acquisition.
Adlof earned bachelor’s (University of Central Arkansas) and master’s (University of Kansas) degrees in speech-language pathology followed by a Ph.D. (University of Kansas) in speech-language-hearing sciences and disorders. She then completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship with the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
She has received the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Early Career Contributions in Research Award and the Rebecca L. Sandak Young Investigator Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. This year, Adlof was named a Breakthrough Star by the USC Office of the Vice President for Research.
Related:
Suzanne Adlof (COMD) named 2019 Breakthrough Star by Office of the Vice President for Research
A Common Childhood Disability Hidden in Plain Sight
Arnold School’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders grows literacy expertise
Adlof leads development of online tutor to accelerate vocabulary acquisition