Kudos May 2023
Celebrating Tufts Faculty and Staff
Kudos is a monthly submissions-based roundup celebrating university faculty and staff—awards, honors, thought leadership, new arrivals, and more. Share your own great news or recognize a colleague at go.tufts.edu/kudos.
Arts and Sciences: Alexi Antoniadis, Art Exhibitions Preparator, Art Gallery
Arts and Sciences: Erin Treanore, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology
Arts and Sciences: John Stark, Dir Child Theatre/Theatre Mgr, Theatre, Dance, and Performance
Central Administration: Elizabeth Hurley, Commencement Coordinator, Office of the Trustees
Central Administration: Frank Benoit, Director Procurement, Procurement
Central Administration: Alexandra Fuentes, Senior Procurement Analyst, Procurement
Central Administration: Elizabeth Geremia, Senior Strategic Sourcing Spec, Procurement
Cummings: Edward Stafford, Sr Strat & Pln Advisor to Dean, Dean's Office
Cummings: Ryan Roy, Pharmacy Tech, Foster Hospital
Dental: Stacy James, Billing Coordinator, Clinic Billing Operations
Dental: Sindy Moradel, Patient Financial Coordinator, Clinic Billing Operations
Dental: Sebastian Merchan, Patient Financial Coordinator, Clinic Billing Operations
Dental: Diane Fernandes, Patient Financial Manager, Clinic Billing Operations
Dental: Monda Kodhelaj, Central Sterilization Asst, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Brian King, Dispensary Assistant, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Vy Dong, Program Coordinator, Continuing Education - Dental
Dental: Betsy Joshua, Program Coordinator, Continuing Education - Dental
Dental: Luz Perez, Sr Dental Assistant, Public Health & Comm Service
Dining: Robens Deriphonse, General Assistant, Campus Center - Dining Svcs
Dining: Neesie Antoine, Assistant Unit Manager, Dewick Dining
Engineering: Taras Hanulia, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Andrew Whitig, Data Analyst, CABCS
Engineering: Bipin Gaikwad, Postdoctoral Scholar, Electrical & Computer Engineer
Fletcher: Iris Niu, Researcher Analyst I, Instruction - Fletcher School
Fletcher: Peter Towne, Assoc Dir Career Svcs, Student Services-Fletcher
Friedman: Halina Dzesiatava, Project Manager, Feinstein Center
Medical: Sandy Dijanic, Grant & Program Administrator, Ctr for Study of Drug Dev.
Medical: Jeevan Pandya, Lab Instructor, DPT Boston Program
Medical: Minh-Tam Nguyen, Lab Instructor, DPT Boston Program
Medical: Joshua Kidd, Lab Instructor, DPT Boston Program
Medical: Manassee Melissa Kisonga, Staff Assistant, Dev, Mol & Chem Bio/Medical
Medical: Atish Roy Chowdhury, Postdoctoral Scholar, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Ayesha Sengupta, Research Assistant Professor, Neuroscience-BasicSci/Medical
Medical: Erin George, Postdoctoral Scholar, Public Health and Community Medicine
Operations: Peter Dechellis, Grounds Keeper, Facilities Services - Medford
Operations: David Hagstrom, Grounds Keeper, Facilities Services - Medford
Operations: Alexis Burgey, Campus Security Officer I, Public Safety - Medford
Operations: Samuel Abraham, Campus Security Officer I, Public Safety - Medford
Operations: Jonathan Vaglica, Campus Security Officer II, Public Safety - Medford
Operations: Willem Parman, Public Safety Dispatcher I, Public Safety - Medford
Provost: Kerranda Vicente, Lab Animal Caretaker, CMS
Provost: Samantha King, IACUC Analyst I, Office of the Vice Provost
Provost: Monroe France, Vice Provost Diversity and Inclusion, Provost's Office
TTS: Laura Maziarz, Clinical Systems Analyst, Tufts Technology Services
TTS: Corrina Halloran, Health Information Manager, Tufts Technology Services
Damian Archer, assistant dean for multicultural affairs and clinical assistant professor at the School of Medicine, has been chosen for the 2023 Grant V. Rodkey, M.D., Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medical Education, presented by the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Tim Atherton, associate professor of physics and astronomy, won a prestigious medal from the British Liquid Crystal Society, called the Cyril Hilsum Medal, for his notable contributions to liquid crystal science, his work in research and innovation within physics education, his passion for enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion in academia, and his general support of the BLCS over the years.
Safi Chalfin-Smith, A24, is one of 175 students nationwide selected to the 2023 ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll representing Tufts University, recognized for her nonpartisan democratic engagement work.
Christine Fitzgerald, manager of marketing and communications in Tufts Technology Services, was the recipient of the NERCOMP 2023 Mark Berman Community Outreach Award. This award recognizes a member of a NERCOMP institution for their contributions to NERCOMP as well as to the larger higher education community.
Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the edie Awards. The ceremony took place in London on March 30.
Kristin Ziska Strange, associate director of faculty development and instructional design in Tufts Technology Services, was the recipient of the NERCOMP 2023 Katie Vale Memorial Scholarship Award. This award is presented annually to a woman attending the NERCOMP Annual Conference who demonstrates a passion for the role of technology in higher education and embodies the characteristics of an emerging leader.
Tufts Cheer represented Tufts at its first-ever collegiate competition last month. Check out the club’s Instagram page for photos from their national debut.
Two Tufts University step teams competed at the National Championships on Saturday, April 22. The women's team "ENVY" placed second, and the men's team "BlackOut" (reigning champions) placed third. Check out the video, which includes a few highlights.
The 22 recipients of the 2023 Presidential Award for Civic Life have been announced. For more than 20 years, Tufts has recognized some of our most remarkable graduate and undergraduate students with the university’s highest honor for outstanding civic leadership and service. This year, we honor 12 undergraduate students and 10 graduate students. Together, they represent nearly every school at Tufts, as well as a diverse range of academic disciplines and types of civic engagement.
Undergraduate and graduate students Brigid Barrick, Hailey DiCindio, Emily Lew, Jaymie Pietropinto, Michael Saad, John Se Kit Yeun Jr., Kevin Lin Zhang, and Sabrina Zhang, as well as David Kaplan, Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering, Glenn Leung, research tech in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chunmei Li, research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Ning Xiang, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, published “Aggregating in vitro-grown adipocytes to produce macroscale cell-cultured fat tissue with tunable lipid compositions for food applications” in eLife. The researchers have successfully produced cultivated fat tissue in a way that could help enable large-scale production of more flavorful cultured meat. Read more about the study on Tufts Now.
Wayne Altman, Jaharis Family Chair of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine, co-authored the article “Climate Change as a Threat to Health: Family Medicine Call to Action and Response” in the journal Annals of Family Medicine, a leading peer-reviewed journal for research in primary care.
Corinna Beale, director of preclinical research, research instructor in the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine, and adjunct faculty at Cummings School, wrote an article about the environmental impact of lab animal research, which appears in the March/April 2023 issue of Laboratory Animal Science Professional.
Chloe Bird, Sara Murray Jordan Professor of Medicine, wrote commentary about women’s health for The RAND Blog in the article “Advancing Women’s Health Requires Better Evidence.”
Sarah Booth, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, is quoted in the USA Today article “Many people aren’t getting enough vitamin E, but read this before you take a supplement.”
Ruby Belle Booth, elections coordinator at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tisch College of Civic Life, is quoted in the Globe Magazine article “What do Boston’s college students worry about today? And what gives them hope?”
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, is quoted in this Washington Post article: “Black unemployment rate hits record low 5 percent.”
Sophia Costa, A23, has been named a recipient of a 2023 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. The fellowship offers three years of support over a five-year period.
Gregory Crane, professor and Winnick Family Chair in Technology and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Classical Studies, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for the project, Perseus on the Web: Preparing for the Next Thirty Years.
Riccardo Giacconi, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, had his latest film Animal premiere at the Visions du Réel International Film Festival on April 26 in Nyon, Switzerland.
Peter de Guzman, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tisch College of Civic Life, spoke to Delaware Public Media’s “The Green” to discuss youth voters and their potential impact on U.S. politics.
Rose Facchini, lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies, was recently featured on Translators Aloud, a YouTube channel devoted to sharing the work of literary translators. She read her translation of Italian author Diego Lama’s flash fiction story Libertà [Freedom]. A brief synopsis of the story: “Alberto gets a heads up about the imminent apocalypse.”
Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tisch College of Civic Life, discusses Governor Maura Healey’s state budget and tax package on WGBH.
Bess Dawson-Hughes, senior scientist and director of the bone metabolism team at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, is quoted in the Verywell Health article “Does Sunscreen Block Vitamin D?”
Abby Kiesa, deputy director of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tisch College of Civic Life, spoke to NPR in a segment titled “March For Our Lives Co-Founder David Hogg Is Still Angry, Five Years On” about the lasting legacy of the March For Our Lives movement and shared research on the ways the movement inspired a generation of civically engaged youth.
Valencia Koomson, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, had her work addressing longstanding problems with faulty pulse oximeter measurements in dark-skinned patients featured in a National Science Foundation article. Koomson’s work to develop a new device that addresses pulse oximeter accuracy is funded by the National Science Foundation’s Partnerships for Innovation program.
Carol Kumamoto, professor and deputy chair of molecular biology and microbiology, published an article in The Conversation: “A frenemy fungus provides clues about a new deadly one.”
Chris Miller, associate professor of international history at The Fletcher School, discussed his new book Chip War on the Ezra Klein Show (via the New York Times). Read more about Miller and his new book in a Tufts Now article.
Anand Patil, A26, a Tufts Community Union senator representing his class year, worked this school year to install first-aid kits in key buildings around the Medford/Somerville campus. He worked with a number of campus administrators starting in October 2022, and as of April had overseen the installation of the first aid kits in the Joyce Cummings Center, the Science and Engineering Center, Tisch Library, Granoff Music Center, and the Tisch Athletic Center, with plans for installation in five more campus buildings.
Caleb Scoville, assistant professor of sociology, was named a 2023 American Council of Learned Societies Fellow. The fellowship recognizes excellence in humanistic scholarship by early career scholars, and provides between $30,000 and $60,000 to support scholars during six to 12 months of sustained research and writing. Scoville’s project is a book-length study of the case of the Delta Smelt, a small endangered species of fish caught in the center of California’s so-called “water wars” that subsequently became embroiled in America’s culture wars.
Tara Sonenshine, Edward R. Murrow Professor of the Practice in Public Diplomacy at The Fletcher School, wrote an op-ed for The Hill: “What would a win in Ukraine really look like?”
Sam Telford, professor and director of the Tufts New England Regional Biosafety Laboratory at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, discussed the characteristics of ticks and how they transmit various diseases commonly encountered in the United States in a video for the New England Journal of Medicine.
Nancy Thomas, director of the Institute for Democracy in Higher Education at Tisch College of Civic Life, comments on Wisconsin measures that create voting barriers for students in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article “Young voters can help Democrats. Will enough of them cast ballots in Wisconsin Supreme Court race?”
Ann Ward, education and outreach program administrator for the Office of Sustainability, successfully defended her dissertation. Ward’s Ph.D. work at Brandeis University examined how young climate activists process their emotions around climate change and have created a shared culture of what Ward calls “cultivated hope.”
Chantal Zakari, professor of the practice at SMFA, alongside Mike Mandel, lecturer at SMFA, participated in the First Providence Photo Book Fair on April 15 and 16.
Friedman School researchers published a new study titled “Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries” in the journal Nature Medicine. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
A recent study from researchers at the Friedman School suggests tens of thousands of cancer diagnoses and deaths could be prevented through eating behaviors. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
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