Alejandro Lleras
Alejandro Lleras has the kind of zeal for psychology that is often found in recent converts to a cause. In looking at his curriculum vitae it turns out that Lleras did in fact discover his passion for the study of the mind and behavior late in his academic career.
A native of Columbia who earned an undergraduate degree in engineering, Lleras had never even taken a psychology class until required to do so for his master's in human factors at Penn State. It was there, in Happy Valley, Pa., in his first psychology class, that Lleras found happiness with his true calling in life.
"I was totally mesmerized. I could not believe people actually studied cognitive psychology; they actually studied the mind," said Lleras, a faculty member in the Beckman Institute's Human Perception and Performance group and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Illinois.
And right there in the classroom, Lleras had an epiphany.
"I just couldn't hold it in anymore," Lleras said. "I stood up in class and went to the professor and said 'how do you get to do this, how do you get to work on this?' She said 'you get a Ph.D. in psychology.' And I asked 'how do I get a Ph.D. in psychology' and she said 'you can come and be my student.'"
Lleras finished his master's in human factors - the study of human interactions with technology - but from that moment on his focus had shifted to cognitive psychology.
"I was lucky because the person who was teaching that class, Cathleen Moore, was one of the best visual cognition researchers out there," Lleras said. "She was open to accepting me into her lab. It was a life-changing moment that I had the realization that that was what I wanted to do and also that she accepted me into her lab. I quickly finished up my master's and then totally devoted myself to psychology and have been happy ever after."
Lleras jumped in with both feet and the results, as demonstrated by his published work and honors like a coveted National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Award, have proven the soundness of his grad school conversion.
Lleras earned his Ph.D. in Psychology at Penn State in 2002 without ever having taken one high school or undergraduate college course in psychology. But even while he was finishing up his engineering degree in France Lleras knew that that he wanted a career path that included more of a human element.
"As I was nearing the end of those studies I realized I really didn't want to be an engineer," he said with a laugh.
Once Lleras began working with Professor Moore at Penn State, his excitement over psychology didn't wane; in fact he couldn't get enough of it.
"Taking a class with her and getting in her lab really ignited a passion in me," Lleras said. "When I became a grad student, I felt like I had to overcompensate for my total lack of background in psychology. And everything about psychology looked interesting to me because I had never thought about these problems.