Kudos June 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.
Emma Armstrong-Carter, assistant professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study & Human Development, was awarded a Society for Research in Child Development Small Grant for Early Career Scholars.
Ayse Asatekin, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering and Steve and Kristen Remondi Fellow; Vesal Dini, lecturer of physics and astronomy; Trevion Henderson, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Jeff Hopwood, professor emeritus of electrical and computer engineering; Erica Kemmerling, assistant teaching professor of mechanical engineering; Andrew McClellan, professor of history of art and architecture; Todd Quinto, Robinson Professor of Mathematics; and Elaine Short, assistant professor of computer science, received a 2024 School of Arts and Sciences Award or a School of Engineering Award in recognition of outstanding teaching, research, or service.
Timothy Atherton, associate professor of physics and astronomy, was selected as a 2023 5 Sigma Physicist Award recipient by the American Physical Society (APS). This award recognizes APS members who have demonstrated substantial advocacy activity and continued communication with the APS Government Affairs team. Atherton won this award for his longstanding advocacy for LGBTQ+ people in physics and STEM more broadly.
Abe Bayer, M.D./Ph.D. candidate at the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, received the 2024 Experimental Pathologist in Graduate Training Merit Award from the American Society for Investigative Pathology.
Rowan Bishop, Sarah Diamond, and Calvin Tran, all students at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, are 2024 Honos Civicus honorees. Honos Civicus, Latin for “Civic Honors,” celebrates and publicly recognizes graduating Friedman School students who have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to active citizenship during their studies. The Honos Civicus Society, launched in 2009 and managed by Tisch College, is a way for the Friedman School to celebrate and reflect upon its commitment to civic engagement.
Nate Bragg, Tim Cheng, Peter Hsi, and Emmett Lepp, all School of Engineering students and Draper Scholars, participated in the Draper Scholar Research Symposium to share their work. Each year Draper Labs selects graduate students from roughly 15 partner universities to participate in the Draper Scholars program. Draper Labs is a nonprofit engineering company focused on advancing technology at the intersection of government, academia, and industry.
Luke Davis, assistant professor of chemistry, received an award from the Department of Energy to fund the development of new chemistry to decarbonize iron and steel production [PDF]—one of the most significant industrial sources of carbon emission. Davis received one of only 13 awards made nationwide.
Lily Feng, A25, was named a 2024–2025 Newman Civic Fellow.
Sylvester Fernandez de Castro, a student at The Fletcher School and a major in the U.S. Air Force, was named Field Grade Officer of the Year for Forces in Europe and Africa.
Samuel Gebru, professor of the practice of political science at the School of Arts and Sciences, was honored with the 2024 Lewis Latimer Award by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts—the largest business association in the state—for his work and that of his public affairs and social impact consulting firm, Black Lion Strategies.
Laura Gee, associate professor of economics, has been named to the 2024–2025 cohort of visiting scholars by the Opportunity & Inclusive Growth Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
Fulton Gonzalez, professor of mathematics, will serve as the principal investigator for the Department of Mathematics Visiting and Early Research Scholars’ Experiences in Mathematics research, which received renewal funding for three more years from the National Science Foundation. Kasso Okoudjou, professor of mathematics, will serve as the co-principal investigator. Todd Quinto, Robinson Professor of Mathematics, also has a central role in this project. Read more on Tufts Now.
David Greenblatt, Louis Lasagna Endowed Professor at the School of Medicine, is the 2024 ASCPT and FDA William Abrams Lecture Award recipient. The title of Greenblatt’s lecture is “The Benzodiazepine Era,” which he delivered virtually. For more than 10 years, the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have invited experts from academia, industry, and government to discuss advances in clinical pharmacology and drug development. These scientists have excelled in their specialty areas and are some of the most highly esteemed clinical pharmacologists in the field, and their presentations convey novel information and perspectives on fundamental aspects of clinical pharmacology.
Joshua Kritzer, professor of chemistry at the School of Arts and Sciences, has received a $150,000 seed funding award from Sanofi, a leading global life sciences company, to help develop treatments for neurodegenerative disease.
Mark Lerman, professor and chair of the diagnostic sciences department at the School of Dental Medicine, was recently sworn in as the official secretary-treasurer of the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology.
Heather Nathans, dean of academic affairs and professor in the Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Department, received a Duke Library Research Award. This short-term fellowship will support her ongoing archival work on the intersections of Southern, white, Black, Jewish, and Gentile identities, and allow her to explore the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke.
Brian Schaffner, Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies at the School of Arts and Sciences, received a 2024 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship from Carnegie Corporation of New York. The jury selected 28 fellowship winners out of more than 350 nominees. Read more about this honor on Tufts Now.
Paul Summergrad, professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, received the 2024 Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership and decades of service to national and international psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association.
Tufts University has announced the recipients of the Tufts Distinction Awards and David J. Kahle Leadership Award. The Distinction Awards and David J. Kahle Award recipients showcase the shared values of the Tufts community: leadership, innovation, customer service, integrity, collaboration, and respect for diverse perspectives and support for inclusion. In celebration of the honorees, all Tufts faculty and staff are welcome to attend the awards ceremony on June 13.
Tufts University School of Medicine Graduate Programs announced their 2024 award winners. Each year, TUSM Graduate Programs nominate students for various awards to recognize high academic achievement, outstanding dedication to their professional fields, and remarkable dedication to the community. See the full list of awards and winners on the School of Medicine’s webpage.
Several Tufts students participated in the 2024 Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center, and the winners were announced this spring. Read more on the Derby Entrepreneurship Center’s website.
Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, was quoted in the American Heart Association article “‘Safety bundles’ may reduce pregnancy-related deaths, particularly among Black women” and in the STAT article “U.S. maternal mortality rate dips, but will the trend continue?”
Majd Alsoubani, assistant professor, Shira Doron, professor, and Maya Nadimpalli, research assistant professor, all at Tufts’ Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, authored “How Should Health Care Respond to Threats Antimicrobial Resistance Poses to Workers?” in the AMA Journal of Ethics.
Steven Block, professor of international economics at The Fletcher School, along with Leah Costlow, Rachel Gilbert, Julia Matteson, and William Masters, all researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, authored “Trade policy reform, retail food prices and access to healthy diets worldwide” in the journal World Development.
Sarah Booth, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, spoke to WBUR about a recent Tufts study on how food affects the body.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, was quoted in a Washington Post article entitled “Trump got one thing right: Banning TikTok would help Meta (and Google).” Chakravorti also wrote a Harvard Business Review article entitle “AI’s Trust Problem.”
Steve Cicala, associate professor of economics, is quoted in the New York Times article “How Abrupt U-Turns Are Defining U.S. Environmental Regulations.”
Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the New York Times article “Israel, Gaza and the Law on Starvation in War.”
Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School, spoke to NPR about the devastating effects of famine and the methods aid workers employ to address these emergencies in a segment titled “What World War II taught us about how to help starving people today.” He was also interviewed for Al Jazeera’s The Inside Story podcast episode “How Can We Reduce Food Insecurity?” In addition, de Waal, with Fletcher Ph.D. candidates Tarun Gopalakrishnan, Jared Miller, Aditya Sarkar, and Benjamin Spatz, authored a U.S. Institute of Peace report entitled “Traumatic Decarbonization in Fragile States.”
James Fisher, researcher at Tisch College's Generous Listening and Dialogue Center, authored a piece on the new Senegalese government’s promised education reforms.
Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean ad interim and professor of energy and environmental policy at The Fletcher School, was interviewed by the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations and spoke about the newly appointed U.S. and Chinese climate envoys. Gallagher also authored a Foreign Affairs article entitled “Climate Policy Is Working.”
Riccardo Giacconi, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, released the first two episodes of Stories of Sound: Conversations on Sound, Art, and Audio Storytelling, a podcast that explores audio documentaries, radio dramas, interviews, soundscapes, narration, sound installations, archival material, sound design, radio, podcasting, and more. The episodes feature sound artists such as Hildegard Westerkamp, Axel Kacoutié, and Jazmine JT Green, podcasters Nick van der Kolk and Tamar Avishai, audio storytelling theorist Siobhan McHugh, and Rick Moody, writer and professor of the practice at School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
Jeffrey Griffiths, professor of public health and community medicine at the School of Medicine discussed the rise in measles outbreaks in the United States on the podcast WCBSAM: On-Demand.
Jennifer Hashley, project director of the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is quoted in the AARP article “How to Get the Freshest, Healthiest Fruits and Vegetables.”
Sayako Hiroi, a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, had work featured in the Boston Globe.
Justin Hollander, A96, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, spoke at the 60th International Making Cities Livable Conference in Newport, Rhode Island. He presented recent research he has been leading on the impact of green streetscapes on human emotional well-being, building on a Scientific American article he co-authored with Tufts graduate students.
Shafiqul Islam, professor of civil and environmental engineering, along with two colleagues from other institutions, authored “A data-driven global flood forecasting system for medium to large rivers” in the journal Scientific Reports. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering website.
Maulik Jagnani, professor at The Fletcher School, spoke with CNN for the article “How India got stuck in its own unusual time zone.”
Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School, wrote The Conversation article “Many immigrants to the U.S. are fleeing violence and persecution—here’s how the federal government can help cities absorb them.”
Sulmaan Khan, associate professor of international history and Chinese foreign relations at The Fletcher School, is the author of a new book entitled The Struggle for Taiwan. In a review, The Guardian calls the book a “deeply researched and fascinating history” of the island at the center of today’s superpower rivalries. Khan also discussed the book on the Bloomberg Businessweek Podcast. Separately, Khan wrote an article for Foreign Policy entitled “China and the U.S. Are Numb to the Real Risk of War.”
Amy Lee, dean of admissions and associate professor of family medicine at the School of Medicine, authored “Storylines of family medicine IV: perspectives on practice—lenses of appreciation” in the journal Family Medicine and Community Health. This publication is part of “Storylines of Family Medicine,” a 12-part series of thematically linked mini-essays with accompanying illustrations that explore the many dimensions of family medicine, as interpreted by individual family physicians and medical educators in the United States and elsewhere around the world.
Pavel Luzin, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, spoke to Newsweek about what to expect as Russia prepares for the next phase of the war on Ukraine. Luzin was also quoted in the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty article “Inside Russia’s Improvised System For Mobilizing Men For The Ukraine War: An RFE/RL Investigation.”
Maryann Makosiej, V26, and Marisol Rivera-Ramirez, V26, created the Breaking Barriers podcast that seeks to broaden the view of veterinary medicine through conversation around communication barriers in the veterinary field.
Chris Maliga, photography and performance studio manager at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, had work included in the group exhibition Pause at Art League RI in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Chris Miller, associate professor of international history at The Fletcher School, was quoted in an NBC News article entitled “Congress passes bill that could unlock billions in frozen Russian assets for Ukraine;” a New York Times article entitled “Billions in Chips Grants Are Expected to Fuel Industry Growth, Report Finds;” and an MIT Technology Review article entitled “What’s next in chips.” Miller also authored the Financial Times opinion piece “The Chips Act has been surprisingly successful so far.” Additionally, Miller’s webinar talk hosted by Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association chairman Satya Gupta was covered by Mint, and he was also interviewed for the Bloomberg TV segment “Big Tech Firms’ Demand for AI Chips.”
Ethan Murrow, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, recently traveled to Paris where he celebrated a new commissioned work with the Louis Roederer Foundation and collaborated with D+S Editions on a new limited edition lithograph. Three of Murrow’s editions with D+S were recently collected by the New York Public Library and are on view at Château de Vogüé in France.
José Ordovás, senior scientist and leader of the Nutrition and Genomics Team at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, is quoted in a Health article entitled “Study: People with Higher Genetic Risk for Obesity May Need More Daily Steps to Manage Weight.”
Mikayla Paquette, A25, wrote the piece “Championing Community Through Basketball Is a Slam Dunk for Future Generations” in Forbes.
Ken Pucker, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, is quoted in The Atlantic article “Will Americans Ever Get Sick of Cheap Junk?”
Wendy Puryear, a virologist at Cummings School, and Jonathan Runstadler, professor and chair of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School, have joined fellow researchers to develop and refine powerful tools to foster collaboration and avert calamity as a highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza spreads through the nation’s farms. This research was featured in the Boston Globe. Puryear and Runstadler were also featured on American Veterinary Medical Association’s Veterinary Vertex podcast discussing their recently published research in the American Journal of Veterinary Research and Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Sima Samar, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, was on the podcast On the Issues with Michele Goodwin discussing strategies for preserving health access in conflict areas.
Robert Sege, professor at the School of Medicine, is quoted in a Slate article addressing the real-life risks and realities about shaken baby syndrome cases.
Tara Sonenshine, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice in Public Diplomacy at The Fletcher School, wrote an op-ed for The Hill entitled “The United Nations is in the hot seat.”
Sam Telford, professor of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School, is quoted in a Spectrum News 1 article entitled “Infectious disease expert discusses how to handle ticks amid state’s first detection of Powassan virus” and in the WGBH article “It’s not just climate change driving ticks into your backyard.”
Farshid Vahedifard, professor and Louis Berger Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the School of Engineering, along with colleagues from other institutions, authored research that was featured in the recent Eos article “Cracking Soils Could Accelerate Climate Change.”
Alysse Wurcel, associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, is quoted in a WCVB story entitled “Deadly Powassan tick virus confirmed in Sharon, Massachusetts.”
Digital Planet, a Fletcher School website published a new report entitled “Getting Real About AI for the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid: Improving the Economic Outcomes of Smallholder Farmers in Africa.”
Tufts University School of Medicine researchers, along with Massachusetts General Hospital researchers, authored the study “Airway hillocks are injury-resistant reservoirs of unique plastic stem cells” in Nature. In the study, the scientists explored the properties of airway hillocks, which form a shielding bunker around lung stem cells. Read more about this research on the Office of the Vice Provost for Research’s website.
Bárbara Brizuela will become dean ad interim of the School of Arts and Sciences, effective July 1, 2024.