Kudos February 2024
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.
AS&E Shared: Mikayla Ranson, Operations Coordinator, Academic Space Management
AS&E Shared: Margaret Wolff, Admissions Assistant, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Cassandra Cunningham, Admissions Program Assistant, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Emily Concannon, Asst Dir Health Prof Advising, Office-Dean Undergraduate Ed
AS&E Shared: Zachary Tepper, Assoc Dir Residential Educatio, Residential Life & Learning
AS&E Shared: Ellie Egan, Student Records Coord, Student Services Center - A&S
AS&E Shared: Nicole Donohoe, Student Services Supervisor, Student Services Center - A&S
Advancement: Ryan Colantonio, Program Coordinator, UA-Alumni Relations
Advancement: Rachel Riani, Asst Dir Annual Fund & AlumRel, UA-Cummings Dev & Alumni Rel
Advancement: John Irvin, Asst Director Tufts Fund, UA-Fletcher Dev & Alumni Rel
Arts and Sciences: Claudia Lang, Lecturer, Anthropology
Arts and Sciences: Axel De Baat, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Bryanna Vacanti, Research Financial Asst Dir, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Alice Da Fonseca, Professor of the Practice, Data Analytics
Arts and Sciences: Karen Shmukler, Lecturer, EP Child Study & Human Dev
Arts and Sciences: Clare Kennedy, Research Analyst, EP Child Study & Human Dev
Arts and Sciences: Julia Goulding, Department Administrator, English - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Curt Gervich, Lecturer, Environmental Studies
Arts and Sciences: Sinet Kroch, Program Coordinator, Environmental Studies
Arts and Sciences: Tessa Hite, Lecturer, Experimental College
Arts and Sciences: Daven Mcqueen, Lecturer, Experimental College
Arts and Sciences: Erica Bial, Lecturer, Experimental College
Arts and Sciences: Emmett Mckinney, Lecturer, Experimental College
Arts and Sciences: Richard Freedman, Lecturer, Experimental College
Arts and Sciences: Linda Huang, Lecturer, History of Art & Architecture
Arts and Sciences: Joanna Kurkowicz, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Kathleen Flynn, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Hisako Hiratsuka, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Armine Donato, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Fernando Huergo, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Timur Rubinshteyn, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Christopher Sierra, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Pascale Delache-Feldman, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Chenyang Xu, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Scott Woolweaver, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Gerard Bussiere, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Mark Emery, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Diane Heffner, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Celia Slattery, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Anne Howarth, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Robert Couture, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Nancy Dimock, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Sarita Uranovsky, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Adrian Sicam, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Malcolm Barsamian, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Emmanuel Feldman, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Phillip Grannan, Music Private Lesson Instruct, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Kamil Serafin, Postdoctoral Scholar, Physics & Astronomy - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Matthew Segal, Professor of the Practice, Political Science - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Marcus Weera, Assistant Professor, Psychology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Nicole Detore, Lecturer, Psychology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Kristopher Bradley, Lecturer, Psychology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Olivia Brunke, Research Asst, Psychology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Sara Colantuono, Lecturer, Romance Studies - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Neta Weiner, Visiting Artist, Theatre, Dance, & Performance
Arts and Sciences: Stav Marin, Visiting Artist, Theatre, Dance, & Performance
Arts and Sciences: Ian Spangler, Lecturer, Urban & Enviro Policy & Plan
Auxiliary Services: Kevin Frazier, Asst Manager Mkt & Client Supp, Conference Bureau
Central Administration: Kathryn Shields, Director Talent Management, Human Resources
Central Administration: Augustus Dubose, Director Procurement, Procurement
Cummings: Jessica Rodgers, Administrative Coordinator, Clinical Sciences-Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Ashley Brewer, Administrative Coordinator, Dean's Office - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Gianna Hansing, Animal Care Attendant, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Samantha Carter, Vet Tech I, ECC, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Aliyah Johnson, Veterinary Assistant, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Kaitlyn Mcbrien, Veterinary Technician I, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Chelsey Mills, Veterinary Technician I, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Cianna Costa, Veterinary Technician I, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Manasvi Patel, Sr Research Technician, Infec Disease&Global Hlth-Vet
Dental: Ana Jiminian, Director Practice Management, Administration - Dental
Dental: Qinhua Riggs, Central Sterilization Asst, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Michel Charles, Central Sterilization Asst, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Sylvia Buan, Central Sterilization Asst, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Katherine Walker, Dental Hygienist, Public Health & Comm Service
Dental: Sasha Mateo, Patient Registration Coord, Public Health & Comm Service
Dental: Crystal Hunter, Insurance Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dental: Jessica Ingram, Insurance Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dental: Victoria Linares, Patient Financial Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dental: Vanessa Rodriguez, Patient Financial Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dental: Jason Zhou, Patient Financial Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dining: Myriame Jeudy, Service Attendant, Campus Center - Dining Svcs
Dining: Gricelda Robles, Service Attendant, Campus Center - Dining Svcs
Dining: Melianise Milfort Saint Fleur, Dining Service Attendant, Dewick Dining
Dining: Wilbens Sanrelus, Dining Service Attendant, Dewick Dining
Engineering: Graham Leverick, Assistant Professor, Chemical & Biological Engineer
Engineering: Rabeb Layouni, Lecturer, Chemical & Biological Engineer
Engineering: Junjie Chen, Lecturer, Chemical & Biological Engineer
Engineering: Perry Donham, Lecturer, Computer Science
Engineering: Yingjie Lao, Visiting Assoc Prof, Electrical & Computer Engineer
Engineering: Maura Vogel, Dir Graduate Admissions, Gordon Institute
Engineering: Amir Hasson, Lecturer, Gordon Institute
Engineering: Elizabeth Goodrich, Lecturer, Gordon Institute
Engineering: Ken Tango, Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering
Engineering: Jason Ryan, Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering
Engineering: Kasandra Yee, Diversity Program Administrato, School of Engineering
Fletcher: Samara Abramson, Assoc Dir Comm & Public Rel, Academic Support-Fletcher
Fletcher: Tamirace Fakhoury, Associate Professor, Instruction - Fletcher School
Fletcher: Baihe Gu, Visiting Scholar, Instruction - Fletcher School
Friedman: Venus Israni, Assistant Dean for D&I, Office of the Dean
Friedman: Maleeka Shrestha, Project Coordinator, Patrick Webb Research
Medical: Cindy Lee, Sr Finance Admin Coord, Administration - Medical
Medical: Susanna Chan, Web Content Specialist, Administration - Medical
Medical: Tracy Syverain, CSDD Financial Administrator, Ctr for Study of Drug Dev.
Medical: Jeremiah Tate, Visiting Clinical Assoc Prof, DPT Atlanta Program
Medical: Emily Muller, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Haylee Marie Wilkening, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Jonathan Henderson, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Erin Morstad, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Jenna Mancuso, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Julie Ronnebaum, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Marlon Addison, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Jessica Jacobs, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Edison Bono, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Lorenzo Casertano, Assistant Professor, DPT Phoenix Program
Medical: William Jordan, Program Manager, DPT Phoenix Program
Medical: Chandi Edmonds, Assistant Professor, DPT Seattle Program
Medical: William Mcgehee, Visiting Professor, DPT Seattle Program
Medical: Nisharna Jackson, Asst Dir Employer Relations, Graduate Student Services
Medical: Aaron Mendez, Assistant Professor, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Ivonne Morban Mora, Research Tech, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Sankhanil Saha, Postdoctoral Scholar, Neuroscience-BasicSci/Medical
Medical: Katelyn Joyal, Postdoctoral Scholar, Neuroscience-BasicSci/Medical
Medical: Jessica Busiek, Administrative Coordinator, Physician Assistant Program
Medical: Joseph Delong, Instructor, Physician Assistant Program
Medical: Tricia Desmarais, Sr Research Administrator, Public Hlth and Community Med
Operations: Michael O'connor, Police Officer, Public Safety - Medford
Provost: Thaddeus Williams, Senior Staff Veterinarian, CMS
Provost: Antoinette Matthews, Spec Advisr to Vice Prov Innov, Provost's Office
SMFA at Tufts: Cal Rice, Lecturer, SMFA
SMFA at Tufts: Faye Thomas, Lecturer, SMFA
SMFA at Tufts: Tzu-Ju Chen, Lecturer, SMFA
SMFA at Tufts: Zhidong Zhang, Lecturer, SMFA
Tisch: Tova Wang, Visiting Scholar, Tisch College
Tufts Technology Services: Kathryn Scott-Harvey, Studio Manager, Tufts Technology Services
University College: Robert Doyle, Lecturer, UC Open Enrollment Programs
University College: Thomas Hickey, Lecturer, UC Open Enrollment Programs
Xinru Chen, Alec Stephanian, and Erin Sanders, students in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences program in genetics, molecular, and cellular biology, received American Health Association predoctoral fellowships.
MyDzung Chu, assistant professor of medicine and director of the ADAPT (Addressing Disparities in Asian Populations through Translational Research) Coalition at Tufts University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, has been named as one of Popular Science’s 2023 Brilliant 10—their list of 10 researchers who are changing the world.
Andy Clark, affiliate, Carolynn DiCostanzo, principal IT client support specialist, Christine Fitzgerald, manager of service marketing and communications, PeiQuan Ho, senior application developer, Susan Remondi, senior knowledge and learning specialist, and Jon Rice, associate director of identity and access management, all in the Office of Tufts Technology Services, recently completed a major project to improve the password change system on the TTS Service Desk.
João Pedro de Medeiros, A26, Julia Giatrelis, A24, Madison Page, E27, all received the Paul and Elizabeth Montle Prize for Entrepreneurial Achievement from the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts in recognition of their outstanding entrepreneurial passion, knowledge, and skills.
Thomas Fitzgerald, Charlotte Lammel, Molly Sotangkur, Anthony Vu, and Desmond Wong, members of The Fletcher Frontiers—a group of Class of 2025 Master of International Business students—secured second place in the Cornell Emerging Markets Institute Corning Case Competition.
Scott Gyimesi, A26, who plays on the men’s basketball team, has been named to the Bevo Francis Top 100 Watch List for the 2023–24 season. This is a national award presented annually to the player who has had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. The award is given to one player per season.
David Kaplan, Stern Family Endowed Professor of Engineering, and Vincent Fitzpatrick, research assistant professor of biomedical engineering, were awarded an Acorn Innovation Grant. The grant will support the development of improved biopolymer implants; many current implants fall short of clinical needs due to material and manufacturing limitations. Kaplan was also named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election as an academy fellow is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. As a member of the Class of 2023, Kaplan will be honored at the NAI’s annual meeting this summer in Raleigh, North Carolina. Read more about the fellowship on Tufts Now. Additionally, the Kaplan Lab at Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture (TUCCA) will be collaborating with Boston-based Tender Food, a food tech startup that creates steaks from plant proteins. With the R&D funding, Tender Food will collaborate with the TUCCA to determine if cultivated cells enhance the flavor, aroma, and nutrition of the company’s plant-based meat.
Elisabeth Leake, Lee E. Dirks Professor in Diplomatic History at The Fletcher School, received the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Lecture award. She will present her lecture at the 2025 SHAFR Conference.
Brandon Linton, the Tufts men’s basketball coach, was named to the 2024 Elite 50 Power Lunch list by Silver Waves Media.
Karen Panetta, dean for graduate education and professor at the School of Engineering, has been named one of the top five people in artificial intelligence sustainability by Business Insider.
Greses Pérez, McDonnell Family Assistant Professor in the School of Engineering, was awarded an NSF CAREER Award for research on the role of language and culture in engineering. Read more about the award on the School of Engineering’s website.
Jameson Yee, Tufts University Police Department lieutenant, received the Massachusetts Campus Law Enforcement Association Sean Collier Award for Innovations in Community Oriented Policing. Yee has been committed to community engagement for many years, including his work organizing the Toys for Tots Cruiser Convoy and the Massachusetts Pink Patch Project.
Tufts University has been named one of 40 U.S. colleges and universities to receive the 2024 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification from the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Read more on Tufts Now.
The Fletcher School, in partnership with Manifest, has secured an innovation contract from AFWERX, the U.S. Air Force’s innovation arm.
Zviad Adzinbaia, Ph.D. student at The Fletcher School, discusses in a blog post for Atlantic Council the EU’s designation of Georgia as an official candidate country while, on the same day, confirming its decision to start accession discussions with Ukraine and Moldova.
Carlos Alvarado Quesada, professor of the practice of diplomacy at The Fletcher School, co-wrote the commentary “Tackling Existential Threats through the ‘Nukes-for-Climate Swap Agreement’” for Economic & Political Weekly.
Zhiyi Cao, member of the ophthalmology department, Noorjahan Panjwani, professor emerita in the ophthalmology department, Albert Tai, research assistant professor of immunology, and other researchers authored “Anti-Angiogenic and Anti-Scarring Dual Effect of Galectin-3 Inhibition in Mouse Animal Models of Corneal Wound Healing” in the American Journal of Pathology.
José Caro, assistant dean for multicultural affairs, was appointed the Dr. Jane Murphy Gaughan Professor at the School of Medicine. The professorship recognizes Caro’s leadership role in spearheading diversity initiatives and programs at the School of Medicine.
Alice Connors-Kellgren, assistant professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, was quoted in the Boston Globe about New Year’s resolutions and how they stem from the need to have a clear start date for a lifestyle change and the need to remember that the start of a new year follows a period filled with family, food, and rest.
Jonathan Davis, professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, co-authored “Neonatal Survival After Serial Amnioinfusions for Bilateral Renal Agenesis,” published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Davis appeared on the JAMA Author Interviews podcast to discuss the paper.
Peter de Guzman, researcher, and Alberto Medina, senior communications specialist, with contributions from Kate Hilton, research analyst, Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), Abby Kiesa, associate director of CIRCLE, Kelly Siegel-Stechler, senior researcher, and Sara Suzuki, senior researcher, all at Tisch College, conducted and published a new survey entitled “Youth and the 2024 Election: Likely to Vote and Ready to Drive Action on Key Political Issues,” an early poll of youth (ages 18–34) ahead of the 2024 presidential election that highlighted major trends in young people’s political views and participation. Read more about the survey on Tufts Now.
Monica Duffy Toft, professor of international politics, and Chris Miller, associate professor of international history, both at The Fletcher School, had their books, Dying by the Sword: The Militarization of US Foreign Policy and Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology, respectively, earn spots on the Foreign Affairs “Best of Books 2023” list. Toft’s book also made the “2023 War On The Rocks Holiday Reading List,” and Miller’s book also earned a spot on Barack Obama’s “Favorite Books of 2023” list. Additionally, Miller joined the Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan podcast to discuss the strategic significance of semiconductor technology and how this critical yet often underestimated technology influences global economics, power structures, and policymaking. Miller was interviewed by the Deccan Herald to discuss India’s prospects in the chip-making ecosystem and whether the country can take advantage of the “China+1 strategy” of Western companies, was quoted in The Dispatch article “Taiwan’s Upcoming Election, Explained,” as well as in the Reuters article “China’s military and government acquire Nvidia chips despite U.S. ban,” and in the Washington Post article “Biden administration hopes chips will give it an election year boost.” Additionally, Toft published an article about the current situation for Israelis and Palestinians for The Conversation.
Audrey Dutcher, biomedical engineering student, Giulia Guidetti, research assistant professor, Taehoon Kim, postdoctoral scholar, Nicholas Ovstrovsky-Snider, postdoctoral scholar, Fiorenzo G. Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor, and Marco Lo Presti, research assistant professor, all from the Tufts Silklab and the Department of Biomedical Engineering published their research “Co-modulation of structural and pigmentary coloration in Lyropteryx apollonia butterfly” in Optics Express.
Johanna Dwyer, professor of medicine, is quoted in the WebMD article “Getting Too Much of Vitamins and Minerals.”
Brent Forester, chair of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, spoke with Boston Business Journal about the need for hospitals to prepare for a flood of mental health and dementia patients in coming years.
Laura Gee, associate professor of economics, was interviewed by Michael Klein, professor of international economics at The Fletcher School and executive editor of EconoFact, for an EconoFact podcast episode entitled “Charitable Giving in the United States.”
Justin Hollander, A96, professor in the Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, was interviewed and quoted in an article in Scientific American.
Dan Jay, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences dean emeritus and professor, shares his journey navigating the dual realms of molecular biology and visual art and how he believes academia can support scientists seeking to integrate their research with creative pursuits, in the Nature Careers Podcast.
Sulmaan Khan, associate professor of international history and Chinese at The Fletcher School, is quoted in a recent article for The Atlantic entitled “Beijing Won’t Allow Taiwan’s Democracy to Survive.”
Valencia Koomson, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, developed a “smart” pulse oximeter that overcomes the limitations of commercially available oximeters, which are calibrated based on light-skinned individuals and tend to measure incorrect blood oxygenation levels in people of color. Koomson was accepted in the MedTech cohort of Equalize 2024, and she was selected as a top-five candidate in the pediatric track of the MedTech Color Pitch competition to further develop the smart pulse oximeter. These prestigious programs are specifically designed to support diversity in biotechnology.
Andres Ardisson Korat, a scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts, was the lead author on a recently published study entitled “Dietary protein intake in midlife in relation to healthy aging—results from the prospective Nurses’ Health Study cohort” in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Ardisson Korat worked with other researchers at the HNRCA and additional institutions on this study. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Susan Landau, professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School and professor of computer science at the School of Engineering, authored “Write the Laws for the World in Which We Live—Not the One We Imagine” for Lawfare.
Paul Lehrman, AG10, senior lecturer in the music department and co-director of the music engineering program, is a pioneer of electronic music and continues to build upon his practice. Lehrman traveled to Switzerland in January for a new ballet choreographed to Ballet mécanique by American avant-garde composer George Antheil, a work Lehrman revived 25 years ago, ushering in new and global appreciation for the revolutionary 1924-5 composition. The performance at the Opernhaus (Opera House) in Zurich, is one of three works in a program by Ballett Zürich that pays homage to works from the 1920s. For this occasion, Lehrman collaborated with pianist Guy Livingston to create a newly revised work featuring solo piano and multiple loudspeakers. Instruments, including multiple pianolas, bass drums, xylophones, electric bells, airplane propellors, tam-tam, and siren, are also played from 21 digital audio files created by Lehrman through a 64-speaker sound system. Choreography is by leading Australian choreographer Meryl Tankard. First produced in 1925, Ballet mécanique was intended for, but never shown with, a surrealist-Dadaist film. Originally scored for 16 pianolas—or automated pianos—and an orchestra of 10 percussionists, playing both conventional instruments and sound effects, it was never performed in its original orchestration, since at the time the technology to synchronize multiple pianolas didn’t exist. The piece premiered in Paris in 1926 with a single pianola, and audiences were outraged. It then lay dormant until 1999 when Lehrman, with the assistance of 16 Yamaha computer-controlled Disklavier pianos, produced a performance at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. It has since been performed more than 100 times by ensembles in North and South America, Europe, and New Zealand, as well as by a robotic orchestra installed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. The version for solo piano and multiple loudspeakers, which was shortened by Lehrman from its original 25 minutes to 15, was premiered in Germany in 2013, and has since been performed in Montreal, Providence, Rhode Island, and, in 2017, at Tufts.
Michael Levin, Vannevar Bush Professor of biology, and Gizem Gumuskaya, Ph.D. student, joined WBZ to talk about what the future holds for Anthrobots—tiny automatons made of human cells that may heal tissue. In November 2023, their research, “Motile Living Biobots Self-Construct from Adult Human Somatic Progenitor Seed Cells,” was published in Advanced Science. In addition, Gumuskaya and others working on the project had two images from Anthrobots research featured in the New York Times as part of the Times’ eight stunning images from the year in neuroscience. Levin was also recently on a John Templeton Foundation Ideas podcast episode entitled “The Frontiers of Regenerative Medicine: From Frog Embryos to Human Limb Regeneration.” Read more on Tufts Now.
Jiantao Ma, assistant professor in the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science at the Friedman School, was co-senior author of the study “Circulating metabolites may illustrate relationship of alcohol consumption with cardiovascular disease,” published in the journal BMC Medicine. Read more about the study on Tufts Now.
Idicula Mathew, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts entrepreneur-in-residence, was named to the Forbes 2024 30 Under 30 list for Manufacturing & Industry. In 2018, Mathew started Hera Health Solutions, a pharmaceutical device company specializing in the development of long-acting treatments through proprietary bio-erodible drug delivery implants, which was based on his undergraduate research at Georgia Tech.
Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the senior author on a study entitled “Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premium Cost Growth and Its Association with Earnings Inequality Among U.S. Families,” which appeared in the journal JAMA Network Open. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Chidi Odinkalu, professor of the practice in international human rights law at The Fletcher School, comments in the Financial Times on the parallel investigations into Nigeria’s central bank and its wealthiest citizen.
Anastassios Pittas, professor of medicine, explains how much vitamin D is needed for optimal health in Scientific American.
Kenneth Pucker, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, wrote the article “How Fashion’s Business Model Is Wasteful by Design” for the Business of Fashion. Additionally, as reported in Sourcing Journal, Pucker told lawmakers in Washington state that mandated in-depth corporate social responsibility reporting is necessary to move the needle and ensure brands are held accountable for their impacts.
Gail Sonenshein, professor of developmental, molecular, and chemical biology at the School of Medicine, and colleagues published “ADAM8 is expressed widely in breast cancer and predicts poor outcome in hormone receptor positive, HER-2 negative patients” in Cancer Cell International. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Tara Sonenshine, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice in Public Diplomacy, wrote two op-eds for The Hill entitled “The invisible enemy in Ukraine? Superbugs” and “Immigration lessons from abroad—the U.S. isn’t the only one tightening its borders.” Sonenshine also wrote a piece for The Conversation entitled “The U.S. is struggling to handle an immigration surge—here’s how Europe is dealing with its own influx.”
Farshid Vahedifard, Louis Berger Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering, comments on the heightened risk of flooding in California’s farming communities in a recent LA Times article.
Abiodun Williams, professor of the practice of international politics at The Fletcher School, joined the BlackTalk Podcast to discuss the role of race in international justice institutions, personal lessons learned from his extensive career as a diplomat and academic-practitioner, and his role as a mentor and community builder. He also published an essay in Ethics & International Affairs, a journal of Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, entitled “Global Justice in a Turbulent World.”
Josephine Wolff, associate professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School, was named one of the recipients of Google’s Trust & Safety Research Award. Wolff will analyze private and public sector stakeholder perspectives on the EU AI Act. Additionally, Wolff and two colleagues from other institutions authored “Lessons from GDPR for AI Policymaking” in the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology.
Qiaobing Xu, professor of biomedical engineering, and colleagues recently published two new papers focused on CRISPR technology and mRNA vaccines in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. One of the papers is entitled “Harnessing non-Watson-Crick’s base pairing to enhance CRISPR effectors cleavage 1 activities and enable gene editing in mammalian cells,” and the other is entitled “Monovalent SARS-COV-2 mRNA vaccine using optimal UTRs and LNPs is highly immunogenic and broadly protective against Omicron variants.” Read more about Xu and his research on the School of Engineering’s website.
Cummings School’s “Paws for People” program was featured in the Worcester Guardian. The piece covers a day in late December when the program took therapy and emotional support dogs to Worcester Public Library for community members to meet.
The Tufts University Prison Initiative of Tisch College (TUPIT) was featured in a Boston Globe op-ed entitled “Tufts prison initiative gives grads the gift of hope.” TUPIT was also featured in the Boston Globe article “Tufts celebrates first class of incarcerated graduates at MCI-Concord.”
Jake Ashton was promoted to preclinical services animal care and operations support technician in Comparative Medicine Services.