Dr. Stephen Maisto and Dr. Sarah Woolf-King of the Department of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) have earned a rare perfect score on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) planning grant application.

Sarah Woolf-King and Stephen Maisto—assistant professor and professor, respectively, of psychology—are co-recipients of a three-year, $667,000 NIH grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). Using a special scoring system, an NIH review committee gave the application an overall impact score of “10”—the highest score possible.

Woolf-King says the score came as a “complete shock” to her. “Even though Steve and I were confident in the quality of the grant submission, I doubt that such a score will happen again in our careers,” says Woolf-King, a licensed clinical psychologist who studies health psychology, epidemiology and behavioral medicine. “We are very excited about this project, and believe it has potential to enhance care and treatment-related outcomes for people living with HIV.” Read More.