Michael D. Robinson, professor of psychology, has been selected to present the initial Phi Kappa Phi NDSU Faculty Lectureship. Robinson's lecture, titled “The Surprising Power of Conceptual Metaphor,” is scheduled Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m., in Festival Concert Hall. 

The lecture will be held in conjunction with the honor society's fall induction ceremony, which is scheduled for the same evening at 6 p.m. in Beckwith Recital Hall.

Robinson was nominated by a committee that included psychology department faculty members Ben Balas, James Council, Rob Dvorak, Verlin Hinsz and Mark McCourt.

"Dr. Robinson is a personality-social psychologist who adopts a broadly cognitive perspective in understanding how motivation, emotion and self-regulation work," wrote the committee, describing him as the most prolific scholar in the department's 60-year history. "Professor Robinson is exceptionally devoted to the undergraduate and graduate students who work with him, exquisitely sensitive to student skills and abilities and willing to do whatever he can to facilitate their learning and ultimate success."

Robinson has received NDSU's Fred Waldron Research Award, as well as the College of Science and Mathematics Research Award and Mentoring Award. He also was named the James A. Meier junior professor for his early accomplishments and James A. Meier senior professor for his later achievements. 

Robinson earned his bachelor's degree at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his doctorate from the University of California, Davis. Following post-doctoral experiences at the Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois, he was a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois in 1999. Soon after, he joined the NDSU faculty. 

Robinson has produced approximately 200 refereed publications, and has received funding from both the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He is a fellow of four societies, including the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is considered the nation's most prestigious all-discipline honor society. Membership is by invitation only to the top 7.5 percent of NDSU’s second term juniors and the top 10 percent of seniors and graduate students.