Faculty Profile - Richard Topolski
by Justin Williams

	Richard Topolski space

U.S. Army soldiers enduring basic training in camps across the nation are under intense stress and suffer high rates of attrition. That fact isn’t lost on Richard Topolski, associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychology, who along with the Center for Disease Control and U.S. Army was inspired to put together a research project which includes a group of his undergraduate and graduate students.

“The students were standing out in 30 degree temperatures at 5:30 a.m., taking physiological measurements while soldiers were working out,” he says of the group’s time in Columbus, Ga. “While everyone’s assignment may not have been glamorous, everyone’s role was vital to the overall success of the project,” adds Dr. Topolski.

Projects like this one highlight important qualities of the students who have worked so hard on them. But they also illustrate one of the most captivating characteristics inherent in Dr. Topolski’s makeup: his passion for getting students involved in research so that they can enjoy a rewarding experience.

“This way, they gain a lot more insight than if they’re just reading about it in a book,” he says. “Some of this research will lead to publications. But it also helps in terms of their future employment. These students are able to make their own mark in history.”

The students were certainly rewarded for their work; their research appeared in a special on CNN, and it was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It’s not very often that students get to work side-by-side with the chief of one of the Center for Disease Control’s major branches,” stated Dr. Topolski.

Dr. Topolski’s steadfast belief in the benefits of student-led research finds its roots in his own experiences during undergraduate school at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo. There, he was fortunate enough to fall into a research position with Irv Biederman, one of the most prominent in the field of cognitive psychology.

“If you open up any Introduction to Psychology, Sensation and Perception, or Cognitive Psychology textbooks, his research that I assisted with is covered,” says Dr. Topolski.
Outside of the academic setting, Dr. Topolski says that “95 percent of people would consider my life pretty boring.” Aside from occasionally frequenting Forest Hills Golf Course, he stays home most of the time, either spending time with his wife, Ju-Hsieh Tang, reading, or enjoying one of his passions, high-end audio equipment.

“You won’t ever find me buying an iPod,” says Dr. Topolski. “I’m more about quality than quantity. Today, it seems like it’s more about saturation.”

Dr. Topolski received his bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo and his master's and doctoral degrees from SUNY at Binghamton.

How long at ASU: 11 years

Family: wife, Ju-Hsieh Tang

What I like about ASU? “We have a very wonderful collegial faculty. We have the infrastructure to succeed. It’s just a great faculty; it’s comfortable, and I enjoy being here at ASU.”

Hobbies: Watching foreign movies by directors such as Takashi Miike or Chan Wook Park. He considers himself a connoisseur of sorts when it comes to beer and wine, most notably Canadian-brewed Belgian ales.

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July 2007
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