Kudos September 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.
ASE Shared: Michelle Sun, Admissions Counselor, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Marissa Kanakry, Admissions Counselor, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Douglas Alford, Sr Assoc Dir Grad Admissions, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Malina Maladore, Postdoctoral Clinician, Counseling Center
AS&E Shared: Xiaoxiao Dong, Postdoctoral Clinician, Counseling Center
AS&E Shared: Ellen Yang, Postdoctoral Clinician, Counseling Center
AS&E Shared: Markus Waithe-Alleyne, Medical Technologist, Health Services
AS&E Shared: Cara Zampino, Administrative Coordinator, Latinx Center
AS&E Shared: Jennifer Gates, Administrative Coordinator, Office-Dean Undergraduate Ed
AS&E Shared: Amanda Russell, Sr Res Life Coord Operations, Residential Life & Learning
Advancement: Alyssa Frank, Dir Development Hillel, UA-Arts & Sciences Development
Arts and Sciences: Atoosa Parsa, Postdoctoral Scholar, A&S Faculty Affairs
Arts and Sciences: Chaoyue Liu, Program Coordinator, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Sydney Palmer, Research Tech, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Adam Safron, Scientist III, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Daniel Sunshine, Postdoctoral Scholar, Center for the Humanities
Arts and Sciences: Amarildo Barbosa, Sr Lecturer, DEIJ Leadership
Arts and Sciences: Eleanor Antezana, Teacher Assistant, EP Child Study & Human Dev
Arts and Sciences: Patrick Shea, Teacher Assistant, EP Child Study & Human Dev
Arts and Sciences: Jonah Bloch-Johnson, Assistant Professor, Earth and Climate Sciences
Arts and Sciences: Takeshia Pierre, Instructor, Education - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Fiona Prentice, Head Teacher, Eliot Pearson
Arts and Sciences: Amber Loveless-Patterson, School Coordinator, Eliot Pearson
Arts and Sciences: Elizabeth Dowgert, Teacher Assistant, Eliot Pearson
Arts and Sciences: Ida Rahimi, Administrative Coordinator, English - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Destiny Rivera, Administrative Coordinator, Mathematics - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Jyoti Gupta, Administrative Coordinator, Mathematics - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Rocio Diaz Martin, Postdoctoral Scholar, Mathematics - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Holly Stumpf, Community Music Instructor, Music - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Daniele Santucci, Lecturer, Office Dean Arts & Sciences
Arts and Sciences: Cilicia Brotherson, Lab Coordinator, Psychology - A&S
Central Administration: Benjamin Colello, Associate Head Coach II, Athletics
Central Administration: Jason Maccannon, Athletic Trainer, Athletics
Central Administration: Bryan Stark, Head Coach Baseball, Athletics
Central Administration: Rowena Tuttle, Comm & Event Plng Specialist, President's Office
Cummings: Isabelle Louge, Assistant Clinical Professor, Amb Med & Theriogenology
Cummings: Lillian Haynes, Lab Technician, Comparative Pathobiology
Cummings: Kellie Baldaro, Animal Servs Technologist, Department of Research
Cummings: Leonard Hackett, Research Support Spec-NERBL, Department of Research
Cummings: Michelle Auger, Animal Care Attendant, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Kristen Darlington, Client Services Coordinator, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Sean Moore, Pharmacy Tech, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Audrey Sharp, Veterinary Assistant, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Dental: Zihan Lee, Program Coordinator, Continuing Education - Dental
Dental: Donovan Martinez, Administrative Coordinator, Orthodontics - Dental
Dental: Rugaya Corsano, Patient Financial Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dining: Mark Arnold, Chef Manager, Carmichael Dining Hall
Dining: Beatriz Portillo, Dining Service Attendant, Dewick Dining
Dining: Torrie Jackson, Chef Manager, Hodgdon Dining
Engineering: Ka Yan Lennie Cheung, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Olubunmi Adejimi, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Di Sheng Lee, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Merve Turemen Coskun, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Ankit Pandey, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Chungman Kim, Postdoctoral Scholar, Biomedical Engineering
Engineering: Reuth Mirsky, Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Engineering: Christopher Magnano, Assistant Teaching Professor, Computer Science
Engineering: Elyse Cornwall, Assistant Teaching Professor, Computer Science
Engineering: Hari Sundar, Associate Professor, Computer Science
Fletcher: Milanjali Maharaj, Administrative Coordinator, Academic Support-Fletcher
Fletcher: Lexi Doolittle, Associate Director Marketing, Academic Support-Fletcher
Fletcher: Qitong Cao, Assistant Professor, Instruction - Fletcher School
Fletcher: Sally Zhang, Assistant Professor, Instruction - Fletcher School
Fletcher: Mikhail Troitskiy, Visiting Professor, Instruction - Fletcher School
Friedman: Eduardo Tovar Lopez, Assoc Dir New Entry Project, New Entry Sustainable Farming
HNRCA: Erfei Zhao, Postdoctoral Scholar, Epidemiology-HNRC
HNRCA: Kenny Chan, Programmer Analyst, Scientific Computing-HNRC
HNRCA: Perinur Bozaykut Eker, Scientist II, Vitamin K Lab-HNRC
Medical: Eric Miller, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Curtis Barber, Program Coordinator, Dev, Mol & Chem Bio/Medical
Medical: Shruti Punj, Program Administrator, Family Medicine
Medical: Tobias Hildebrandt, Research Associate, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Hidetomi Nitta, Research Tech, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Kayla Audette, Sr Research Technician, Neuroscience-BasicSci/Medical
Medical: Clarissa Ronzio, Instructor, Physician Assistant Program
Medical: Kristen Van Dinter, Program Administrator, Public Hlth and Community Med
Medical: Skye Tucker, Program Coordinator, Public Hlth and Community Med
Medical: Jennifer Ide-Don, Program Coordinator, Public Hlth and Community Med
Operations: David Robbins, Assistant Director Real Estate, Office of VP Operations
Operations: Andre Watson, Asst Dir Emergency Mgmt, Public Safety
Operations: Robert Miller, Police Officer, Public Safety - Boston
Provost: Biniam Teklu, Lab Animal Caretaker, CMS
Provost: Joanna Maciver, Executive Assistant, Office of the Vice Provost
Tisch: David Delvalle, Program Administrator, Tisch College
Tufts Technology Services: William McGlothlin, Assoc Director Rsch Computing, Tufts Technology Services
Tufts Technology Services: Katherine Rosario, Studio Manager, Tufts Technology Services
University College: Kelsey Dwyer, Program Coordinator, Univ College Administration
University Comms & Marketing: Aislinn Ford, Digital Production Coordinator, University Comms & Marketing
Bree Aldridge, professor of molecular and microbiology at the School of Medicine, was awarded the 2024 Milton O. and Natalie V. Zucker Prize for her pioneering work in understanding antibiotic combinations and mechanisms of action against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium responsible for TB. This prize is awarded annually to a woman scientist on the TUSM faculty for exceptional career achievements in research. Aldridge’s research focuses on the biology of M. tuberculosis, particularly its ability to survive host and antibiotic stresses. Her innovative approaches have led to breakthroughs in understanding cellular heterogeneity and drug tolerance mechanisms within M. tuberculosis populations.
Carol Bascom-Slack, research assistant professor of medical education; Rachel Giglio, VG24; Revati Masilamani, assistant professor of medical education; Shannon O’Connor, research assistant at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine; Carolyn Talmadge, data lab services manager; and Jess Zulch, VG24, were awarded prizes at the ESRI Users Conference 2024 in San Diego.
Luke Davis, assistant professor of chemistry, and his colleagues received a $2.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy to fund research that could potentially transform iron and steel production. The funding is part of the Revolutionizing Ore to Steel to Impact Emissions program, which aims to advance zero-process-emission ironmaking and ultra-low life cycle emissions steelmaking. Davis is researching the substitution of hydrogen-rich ammonia over coal-derived coke in the process of making iron products, which would drastically reduce the carbon footprint for the widespread industrial process. Davis is also finding a way to make this a commercially viable option. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Shijun Gao, postdoctoral scholar at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was awarded the Best Paper Award by the AAEA China Section at the 2024 AAEA – Agricultural & Applied Economics Association annual meeting.
Giulia Guidetti, research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering and director of Silklab at Tufts, have received a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to further investigate the plant Macodes petola jewel orchid light harvesting systems and the possibility of applying those systems’ optical networks to advance solar energy efficiency. This builds on Guidetti and Omenetto’s earlier research: That the leaves of the Macodes petola jewel orchid are made up of dome-like cells that allow them to capture more than three times as much light as ordinary plant “skin” cells and share that light with neighboring cells, acting essentially as an optical network. That networking process maximizes the light that the plant can use to convert sunlight to chemical energy, essential for its functioning. Read more on Tufts Now.
Mark Hempstead, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, Marco Donato, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and colleagues received a National Science Foundation Community Infrastructure for Research in Computer and Information Science and Engineering grant to create a research tool and infrastructure designed to improve the exploration and evaluation of memory systems in computer architecture.
Michael Hughes, Ann W. Lambertus and Peter Lambertus Assistant Professor, received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award for his work in machine learning and predictive modeling.
Iris Jaffe, the Elisa Kent Mendelsohn Professor of Molecular Cardiology at the School of Medicine, was appointed to the American Heart Association’s Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Women’s Leadership Committee.
Navin Kapur, professor of medicine, has been honored with the 2024 Zucker Family Prize. This accolade is awarded annually to a TUSM faculty member for a career of outstanding research. Kapur has led groundbreaking research initiatives in cardiac fibrosis, acute myocardial infarction, and mechanical circulatory support at Tufts. His pioneering work includes developing novel treatment paradigms, such as ventricular unloading prior to reperfusion in acute MI, which challenge conventional approaches and hold the potential to transform global clinical practices. Beyond his prolific research output, Kapur has been pivotal in establishing collaborative initiatives like the Cardiogenic Shock Working Group, a global consortium aimed at advancing the understanding and management of cardiogenic shock.
Erin Kelly, Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at the School of Arts and Sciences, was selected to serve on the advisory team of “Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston” program, organized by Mayor Michelle Wu and the Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture. With funding from this program, artists and local arts organizations will spark conversations about monuments through temporary public art installations, free public events, and interactive arts experiences. This initiative is supported by a $3 million grant—the largest investment into public art programming in Boston—as part of the Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project. The program aims to transform the nation’s commemorative landscape to ensure collective histories are more completely and accurately represented. Boston is one of nine U.S. cities to receive a grant.
Deirdre Givens Mandryk, V25, and Taylor Miller, V26, students at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, were selected by the American Kennel Club (AKC) to receive the annual AKC Veterinary Outreach Scholarships. The award recognizes veterinary students involved in AKC events and programs who are dedicated to animal health and medicine. This year, 25 recipients were awarded a total of $122,000.
Trever Smith, research assistant professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the School of Medicine, is the national winner of the 2024 Emerging Leader Award for Research of Combination Therapies to Treat Chronic Lyme Disease presented by Bay Area Lyme Foundation. Smith will receive $150,000 for his work to identify precise treatment combinations that more effectively target persistent Borrelia burgdorferi infection in persistent Lyme patients. For this research, Smith intends to develop a first-of-its-kind drug interaction compendium to help prioritize the most effective combinations for testing in pre-clinical models of Lyme disease.
The Tufts chapter of Athlete Ally will be honored at the 2024 Athlete Ally Action Awards, which will take place on October 17 in New York City. Athlete Ally is a nonprofit organization focused on fostering inclusive athletic environments and mobilizing the athletic community to champion LGBTQI+ equality. Since its founding on campus in 2021, Tufts Athlete Ally has become a thriving space for LGBTQ+ identifying and allied athletes to find community. Led by chapter president and founder Ryan Kane, A26, the Tufts chapter’s ongoing efforts have promoted queer visibility and encouraged engagement among individuals of diverse identities, fostering friendships across teams and backgrounds while also working collaboratively to build more inclusive athletic spaces. Read more about the group on Tufts Now.
Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, highlighted the urgent need to address maternal health disparities, emphasizing the impact of structural racism on Black mothers, in a CommonWealth Beacon article.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, wrote the Harvard Business Review article “How India Can Fix Its Employment Crisis” and was quoted in the Bloomberg article “India’s $45 Billion Startup Implosion Puts Tech Future in Doubt.”
MyDzung Chu, assistant professor at Tufts Medical Center, alongside other researchers from Tufts Medical Center, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and Asian Women for Health, authored “Mental health priorities and cultural-responsiveness of the Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training for Asian immigrant populations in Greater Boston, Massachusetts” in the journal BMC Psychiatry.
Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for a Washington Post Live segment that examined Sudan’s hunger and displacement crisis, the country’s civil war, and the response from the international community. de Waal is also quoted in a Financial Times piece.
Deborah Donahue-Keegan and Patricia Palmer, lecturers in the Department of Education, represented Tufts at the four-day Wellbeing in Higher Education Network (WHEN) Summit in Querétaro, Mexico. The summit included higher education faculty and staff from multiple continents exploring the question of “How do we educate the emerging generation of global leaders and changemakers in a way that centers wellbeing and flourishing for all?” Donahue-Keegan serves on the WHEN Summit planning committee.
Daniel Drezner, distinguished professor of international politics at The Fletcher School, joined the CBC to discuss how a second Trump administration may approach key public policy issues.
Kendra Field, associate professor of history, consulted on and is featured in a new Max series, Breaking New Ground. The series, starring Robert Hartwell, delves into the history of a 200-year-old home that Hartwell purchased on Juneteenth 2020 and follows Hartwell as he takes on the challenge of transforming the house with a complicated history into a home filled with love—a renovation story that celebrates the resilience of Hartwell’s journey as well as those who came before him.
James Fisher, researcher at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, authored an article in the journal Arts about the art of two 19th century Black artists, José Antonio Aponte and Martin R. Delany, and their relation to the concepts of Afrofuturism and the Dark Fantastic.
Don Goldenberg, professor of medicine emeritus, authored the Health Central article “A Closer Look at Lupus Treatments.”
Evelyn Hall, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, authored “Digital health treatment program found safe, effective for urinary incontinence” in the journal JMIR Formative Research. Urology Times also published an article describing the findings of this newly published research.
Maulik Jagnani, assistant professor of environmental economics at The Fletcher School, authored a new paper that examines sleep and education outcomes in India. Jagnani’s research is titled “Children’s Sleep and Human Capital Production,” published in the Review of Economics and Statistics. Read more about this research in an article that appeared on the PNAS website.
David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Engineering, was quoted in a Boston Globe article about the Massachusetts Legislature’s efforts toward making significant state investments in the alternative protein industry, an industry in which Tufts is a leader.
Susan Landau, professor of cybersecurity and policy at The Fletcher School and the School of Engineering, co-organized the workshop Advanced Automated Systems, Contestability, and the Law; several recommendations outlined in the final report from the workshop have since been included in a White House memo on government use of artificial intelligence and machine learning systems. Landau co-authored a Lawfare article covering the report entitled, “Challenging the Machine: Insights from a Workshop on Contestability of Advanced Automated Systems.” Read more about Landau’s work on the School of Engineering’s website.
Laura Lara-Castor, N24, and Dariush Mozaffarian, dean emeritus and director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, co-authored a paper that was published recently in The BMJ, along with Sean Cash, Bergstrom Foundation Professor in Global Nutrition at the Friedman School, and others. The paper focuses on the dietary habits of children and adolescents from 185 countries revealed that youth, on average, consumed nearly 23% more sugar-sweetened beverages in 2018 compared to 1990. Overall, intakes were similar in boys and girls, but higher in teens, urban residents, and children of parents with lower levels of education. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Frank Lehman, associate professor of music—and a noted Star Wars music expert—explored composer John Williams’ musical treatment of Anakin Skywalker as part of the Legacy of John Williams celebration week for the 25th anniversary of the Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Pavel Luzin, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, was quoted in Washington Post and Al Jazeera articles about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Gina McCarthy, AG81, senior fellow at Fletcher’s Climate Policy Lab, appeared on C-SPAN with fellow experts to discuss the challenges of economic inequality and climate change.
Chris Miller, associate professor of international history at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for a BBC News World Business Report segment about how a future Trump administration may approach Taiwan, authored the Financial Times article “The global chip war could turn into a cloud war,” and was quoted in the Politico article “Moscow’s Spies Were Stealing US Tech—Until the FBI Started a Sabotage Campaign.”
Eric Miller, professor of electrical and computer engineering, worked with Wilson Laboratory staff scientist Kate Shanks and high school student Connor Jin as part of the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source program.
Vanessa Nicholson-Robinson, assistant professor of public health and community medicine, and Michael Siegel, professor of public health and community medicine, authored a study in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities entitled “Association Between Changes in Racial Residential and School Segregation and Trends in Racial Health Disparities, 2000–2020: A Life Course Perspective.” The research was also covered in a PsyPost article. Additionally, Siegel authored research in JAMA Network Open entitled “Universal Background Checks, Permit Requirements, and Firearm Homicide Rates.” Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Chidi Odinkalu, professor of the practice in international human rights at The Fletcher School, co-authored the African Arguments article “Towards a Sustainable Blue Economy for Africa” and was quoted in the New Humanitarian article “Niger tries a new refugee model as Nigerians flee bandit attacks.”
Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering, led the Tufts research team that authored “Silk fibroin as a surfactant for water-based nanofabrication” in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
James Smoliga, professor and director of research and faculty development for the Tufts DPT Seattle Program, joined an NPR 1A podcast episode to discuss eating contests and how competitive eaters train.
Tara Sonenshine, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, wrote The Hill op-ed “Our power grid can’t take the heat—can cooler heads in D.C. fix the problem?”
Farshid Vahedifard, Louis Berger Chair in Civil and Environmental Engineering, advocated for the prioritization of disadvantaged communities in a recent Law360 article on the new FEMA flood standards.
Abi Williams, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, authored a new book titled Kofi Annan and Global Leadership at the United Nations. Williams also joined a Carnegie Council podcast episode to discuss the book and the leadership traits needed to drive institutional change, and was a guest on Global Connections Television. Read more about Williams’ book on Fletcher’s website.
Josephine Wolff, associate professor of cybersecurity policy, spoke to CNBC about how CrowdStrike losses may impact the nascent cyberinsurance market.