Kudos December 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: Kaitlyn Calnan, Admissions Counselor, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Jillian Horton, Admissions Counselor, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Derek Chase, Admissions Counselor, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Emily Vislosky, Sr Asst Director Admissions, Admissions - AS&E
AS&E Shared: Jacqueline Martin, Senior Library Assistant, Tisch Library
Arts and Sciences: Braden Keiser, Research Tech, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Simone Ummarino, Scientist II, Biology - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Aritra Nath Chattopadhyay, Postdoctoral Scholar, Chemistry - A&S
Arts and Sciences: Christopher Wilson, Department Administrator, Music - A&S
Central Administration: Nicholas Van Lear, Sr Investment Ops Officer, Investment Office
Cummings: Kendall Carreiro, Lab Animal Technician, Animal Resources
Cummings: Ida Forzisi, Assistant Professor, Clinical Sciences-Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Palmira Debevoise, Medical Technologist, Cumming Diagnostic Lab Linking
Cummings: Courtney Romeo, Veterinary Assistant, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Kortney Ormsbee, Veterinary Technician III, Foster Hosp - Cummings-Vet
Cummings: Hope Becker, Assessment Coordinator, Professional Ed-Cummings-Vet
Dental: Jessica Cebada, Educational Support Coord, Academic Services - Dental
Dental: Madison Kilburn, Administrative Coordinator, Administration - Dental
Dental: Shpetim Gega, Central Sterilization Asst, Clinic Materials-Dental
Dental: Jada Finklea, Patient Financial Coordinator, Revenue Cycle Operations
Dining: David Ticehurst, Unit Manager-Dining, Carmichael Dining Hall
Dining: Karen Giraldo, Third Cook, Dewick Dining
Engineering: Haoqing Yang, Postdoctoral Scholar, Civil & Envir Engineering
Engineering: Patricia Oduor, Administrative Coordinator, School of Engineering
HNRCA: Cameron Mcdonald, Research Dietitian, Metabolic Research Unit-HNRC
HNRCA: Maridol Bruce, Staff Nurse, Metabolic Research Unit-HNRC
HNRCA: Kiana Graham, Specimen Processing Tech, Nutrition Evaluation Lab-HNRC
Medical: Elizabeth White, Associate Professor, Biochemistry-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Carrie Hall, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Theresa Marko, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Lindsay Hanson, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Nima Tabloei, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Stuart Eivers, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Katherine Mcgee, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Joshua Holskey, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Sean Wyne, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Samuel Sahhar, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Kathleen Chun, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Kyle Sisler, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Kimberly Eschmeyer, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Matthew Currier, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Natasha Parman, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Brian Matheson, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Zach Collins-Boggins, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Linzy Bond, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Liam Main, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Kathleen Vega, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Abby Gordon, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Benjamin Boyle, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Dominic Jackson, Lab Instructor, DPT Lab Instructors
Medical: Molly Minko, Program Coordinator, DPT Phoenix Program
Medical: Pushkal Sinduvadi Ramesh, Postdoctoral Scholar, Dev, Mol & Chem Bio/Medical
Medical: Leah Graham, Research Asst, Dev, Mol & Chem Bio/Medical
Medical: Sreeja Shaw, Postdoctoral Scholar, Microbiology-Basic Sci/Medical
Medical: Caroline Mutuku, Administrative Coordinator, Student Affairs - Medical
Operations: David Betz, Police Officer, Public Safety - Medford
Operations: Marlinda Turhanaj, Public Safety Dispatcher I, Public Safety - Medford
Provost: Malik Siguenza, Lab Animal Caretaker, CMS
Provost: Ashley Bradley, Preclinical Svcs Technologist, CMS
SMFA at Tufts: Haley Sherif, Administrative Assistant, SMFA at Tufts
Pilar Alcaide, Kenneth and Jo Ann G. Wellner Professor, director of Tufts Immunology Graduate Program, and assistant dean for faculty development in the Department of Immunology, received the American Society for Investigative Pathology’s 2025 Outstanding Investigator Award.
Laurie Baise, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, was named the 2025 recipient of the Seismological Society of America (SSA) and Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) William B. Joyner Lecture Award. The lectureship is jointly awarded by EERI and SSA to those who have provided outstanding earth science contributions to the theory and practice of earthquake engineering or outstanding earthquake engineering contributions to the direction and focus of Earth science research—together with demonstrated skills of communication at the interface of earthquake science and earthquake engineering. Baise will deliver the Joyner Lecture at the 2025 SSA Annual Meeting to be held in April in Baltimore and the 13th National Conference on Earthquake Engineering, which will be held in July in Portland, Oregon.
Yui Chang Chusan and Marcia Rahman, both doctoral students at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, are the most recent Friedman School scholars to join the Health Policy Research Scholars program. The Health Policy Research Scholars, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is a national leadership program for doctoral students starting their second year of study. They join current RWJF Scholar, Friedman School alumna and current Ph.D. candidate, Nayla Bezares.
Sarah Curry, senior assistant director at the Tufts International Center, received the James Leck Distinguished Service Award for her service in the NAFSA: Association of International Educators- Region XI. Jeremy Eichler, John McCann Assistant Professor of Music, received the 2024 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society for his book Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award is offered for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.
Jeremy Eichler, John McCann Assistant Professor of Music, received the 2024 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society for his book Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance. The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award is offered for scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.
Mala Ghosh, associate dean and senior director of Tufts Global Education, was recognized with the 2024 Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion in International Education Award for the individual category of Executive Leader by Diversity Abroad at their Excellence in Diversity & Inclusion in International Education (EDIIE) Awards. The awards celebrate outstanding institutions, organizations, and individuals who have developed inclusive practices that increase access, foster diversity and inclusion in international education, and promote an inclusive environment for international students on campus. The selection committee, comprised of recognized experts in the field, reviewed many deserving nominations and determined that Ghosh’s work exemplifies the practices that increase access, foster diversity, and promote inclusion in international education and exchange.
Nisha Iyer, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, recently received an NIH HEAL New Innovator Award to fund her work on stem cell tool development for pain circuitry.
Michele Jacob, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, was awarded an inaugural 2024 Rare Disease Scholar Award by the Oxford Harrington Rare Disease Center. The award aims to advance academic discoveries into clinical practice for rare diseases.
Ruijie Jiang, Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering, and Shuchin Aeron, associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, along with a team of researchers from East Tennessee State University, Boston University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute received the best paper award at the 2024 IEEE International Workshop on Machine Learning for Signal Processing for their paper titled “On neural collapse in contrastive learning with imbalanced datasets.”
Richard Lerner, professor and Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, and his wife Jacqueline Lerner, who is a professor at Boston College, were inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame in Idaho. The National 4-H Hall of Fame recognizes and celebrates individuals who have made an extraordinary impact on 4-H and the lives of its millions of youth members.
Nancy Marks, community service learning coordinator at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, was awarded first place in the Arts Advancing Social Justice, National Organization of Arts in Health (NOAH), for her work with The Opioid Project: Changing Perceptions through Art and Storytelling. The Opioid Project is an innovative community–based workshop and public art exhibition designed to support those personally touched by opioid use disorder (OUD), to promote community education and dialogue about stigma, and to shed light on the visible and invisible costs of the epidemic. Founded in 2016, The Opioid Project’s model centers on partnering with community organizations to identify local workshop participants—those in recovery, individuals who have lost a loved one to OUD, first-responders, and frontline workers—and then to disseminate the created art and audio stories and to host ongoing conversations. NOAH also recognized four Tufts programs with first place awards and six honorable mentions in Arts Advancing Social Justice, Arts Building Resilience, Arts for Innovation, and Arts Transforming Environments categories.
Eric Miller, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with additional appointments in the departments of computer science, biomedical engineering, and mathematics, was named director of the National Science Foundation Division of Engineering Education and Centers.
Fiorenzo Omenetto, Frank C. Doble Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was recognized as Distinguished Innovator of the Year at the 2024 Tufts Annual Inventor Recognition Event. Gili Naveh, associate professor at the School of Dental Medicine and in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, was named the Rising Innovator of the Year at the same event.
Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering, Matthew Panzer, professor and dean of research in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Eric Miller, professor of electrical and computer engineering, José M. Ordovás, senior scientist and leader of the Nutrition and Genomics team at the HNRCA, and Kyla Shea, scientist at the HNRCA, received $1.7 million funding from the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Aging to develop a low cost, user-friendly wearable technology system capable of providing information from data collected by individuals going about their daily lives in order to help in early detection of cognitive decline. Read more about the funding on the School of Engineering’s website. Sonkusale is also the principal investigator on a project that received Sprint for Women’s Health funding from Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health. Sonkusale will collaborate with colleagues from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, and Northwestern Medicine to develop new technologies that quantitatively measure pain in patients to improve care and accelerate the development of new treatments. The team will receive $3.03 million in funding over two years. Read more about the project on Tufts Now.
Hari Sundar, Ada Lovelace Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science, recently received the Ada Lovelace Professorship. Established in 2021 by an anonymous donor, the professorship supports a term professorship in the Department of Computer Science within the School of Engineering over a five-year period.
Charles Sykes, John Wade Professor of Chemistry, has been named the 2025 Ipatieff Lecturer at Northwestern University. This lectureship sponsors extended visits to the Center for Catalysis and Surface Science at Northwestern by internationally distinguished researchers in catalysis.
Giuseppina Tesco, professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, received the Distinguished Investigator Award, which is conferred upon the top-ranked applicant in the Standard Award Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program.
Tufts Center for Cellular Agriculture received more than $2.1 million from the Healey-Driscoll administration to establish a new center for shared technology and resources for cellular agriculture in Massachusetts.
Zviad Adzinbaia, Ph.D. student in international relations at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the BBC article “Pivotal moment for Georgians with future in Europe at stake.”
Sean Cash, associate professor, Dariush Mozaffarian, dean emeritus and director of the Food is Medicine Institute, Julia Reedy Sharib, project manager, all at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, along with Jennifer Pomeranz, associate professor of public health policy and management at the NYU School of Global Public Health, authored new research titled “Disclosure of mandatory and voluntary nutrition labelling information across major online food retailers in the USA” in the journal Public Health Nutrition. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
John Cerone, visiting professor of international law at The Fletcher School, as part of a team from the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, developed a new tool to monitor violations of international humanitarian law. Learn more about the initiative in a recent Al Jazeera article.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, authored a Foreign Policy article addressing how this year’s Nobel Prizes highlighted both the transformative potential and the grave risks of artificial intelligence. Chakravorti also authored an Indian Express article titled “The US election and some notes from the endgame.”
Michael Cohen, nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School, wrote an op-ed for MSNBC titled “How an independent candidate put Nebraska Republicans on the ropes.”
Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the Christian Science Monitor article “How are targeted killings different from assassinations—and are they legal?” and the New York Times article “Israel Demolished Hundreds of Buildings in Southern Lebanon, Videos and Satellite Images Show.”
JP de Ruiter, professor of psychology and computer science, Vasanth Sarathy, EG20, research assistant professor of computer science, and Muhammad Umair, graduate student in the School of Engineering, authored “Large Language Models Know What To Say But Not When To Speak,” which was posted on Arxiv. The researchers also presented their study results at the Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing 2024 conference in Miami. The research explored why AI does a poor job of knowing when to chime in on a conversation.
Daniel Drezner, Distinguished Professor of International Politics at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for the Independent Thinking podcast episode “Do sanctions work?” Drezner is also quoted in the Politico article “Henry Kissinger Requested a Monument in Arlington National Cemetery. He Won’t Get One.”
Alnoor Ebrahim, professor of management at The Fletcher School, wrote The Conversation article “As OpenAI attracts billions in new investment, its goal of balancing profit with purpose is getting more challenging to pull off.”
Michael Halassa, associate professor of neuroscience and psychiatry, Ralf Wimmer, research assistant professor of neuroscience, and Norman Lam, postdoctoral fellow, all from the School of Medicine, as well as Sahil Suresh, M.D./Ph.D. Medical Scientist Training Program student at the School of Medicine and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, along with a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, published their study “A prefrontal thalamocortical readout for conflict-related executive dysfunction in schizophrenia” in the journal Cell Reports Medicine. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Noorya Hyatt, senior researcher for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Living and Engagement (CIRCLE), was featured in the WCVB segment “These are the top issues researchers say Gen Z voters care about.”
Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean of The Fletcher School, was quoted in an article published in The Guardian discussing how a future Trump administration would likely slow U.S. investment in low-carbon energy.
Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professorship in Global Migration at The Fletcher School, wrote The Conversation article “What is Temporary Protected Status? A global migration expert explains why the U.S. offers some foreign nationals temporary protection.”
Ian Johnstone, professor of international law at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the RTÉ News article “UNIFIL troops vow to stay put as violence escalates.”
Barbara Kates-Garnick, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the New Bedford Light article about how the next president will shape energy policy.
Sulmaan Khan, associate professor of international history and Chinese foreign relations at The Fletcher School, joined WBUR for a discussion on Taiwan’s geopolitical position in recent history.
Liliya Khasanova, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, explores how international crises have shaped global data governance in a piece in Lawfare.
Keren Ladin, associate professor in the Department of Community Health, and Daniel Weiner, professor in the clinical and translational science program at Tufts Medical Center, authored a research study that was highlighted by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Entitled “Does a Decision Aid Help Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease Choose Treatment?”, the study aims to help clinics and other health-care institutions in supporting older adults with chronic kidney disease and their care partners to make better-informed decisions about their care.
David Logan, assistant professor of security studies at The Fletcher School, coauthored a report titled “Deterring a Nuclear North Korea: What Does the Theory Tell Us?” The report was published by the Stimson Center and the 38 North Project.
Pavel Luzin, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, spoke to Voice of America about the deployment of North Korean troops to support Russian aggression in Ukraine for the article “North Korean military at war in Ukraine: reaction in the world.” Luzin was also quoted in an ABC News article about how foreign leaders are approaching the U.S. presidential election.
Meredith McLain, assistant professor of political science, authored a peer-reviewed article in Political Research Quarterly. Entitled “The Traceability of Presidential Policymaking in the Face of Congressional Sanctioning,” the paper examines an original dataset of executive orders, published memoranda, and unpublished memoranda issued between 1981 and 2020. It demonstrates how presidents can overcome legislative checks by altering the traceability of their unilateral directives.
Alberto Medina, senior communications specialist at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), is quoted in a Stateline article titled “College students fight barriers to casting ballots as early voting begins.” CIRCLE analysis on national youth voter turnout is also referenced in the article.
Chris Miller, professor of international history at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the CNBC article “ASML just gave us a first glimpse into how U.S. chip export curbs will dent its China sales” and is featured in the BBC TechLife segment “The fall of a global chip maker.”
Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and interim department chair of international literary and cultural studies, was quoted in The Economist article “Why the world is so animated about anime.”
Chidi Odinkalu, professor of the practice of intranational human rights law at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the Al Jazeera article “Families want justice, ‘blood money’ for AU peacekeeper killings in Somalia.” Odinkalu alongside Fletcher alum Chepkorir Sambu authored the piece “Responsibility to Protect: Africans’ Fate Caught In Global Crises.”
Soyoung Oh, Ph.D. student in international relations, coauthored research in the journal Energy Research & Social Science titled “Decarbonizing industrial hubs and clusters: Towards an integrated framework of green industrial policies.” Oh, along with Agus Sari, affiliate in the Department of Academic Support at The Fletcher School, co-authored The Diplomat article “Why Indonesia’s Path to Net Zero Requires Urgent Action at COP29.”
Tasha Oren, associate professor of media studies and director of film, was interviewed by USC Annenberg Innovation Lab’s podcast about her book, Food TV. Read more about the book on Tufts Now.
Ronald Perry, director of the international student program in the Department of Comprehensive Care at the School of Medicine, and a cohort of students were featured on WCVB Channel 5 Boston’s “Wake-Up Call” segment.
Leah Poole, Ph.D. student in the Agriculture, Food, and Environment Program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Carolyn Van Sant, project manager for the Feinstein International Center, were two Tufts representatives who joined a group of 21 researchers from around the world to conduct a 48-hour rapid study with World Weather Attribution in the wake of Hurricane Helene. Poole and Van Sant were quoted along with climate risk expert Erin Coughlan de Perez, associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, in a Tufts Now story about hurricanes and climate change that discusses the rapid study.
Kendall Reiss, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, participated in two significant events in November. Reiss joined facilitator Francie Latour, outreach and communications coordinator for Research BIPOC History (RBH), as a speaker for Cede the Space: The Urgent Work of Decentering Whiteness in Projects Honoring the Enslaved, a participatory session at the New England Museum Association Conference in Newport, Rhode Island. Reiss also moderated a panel on similar themes at the National Humanities Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, featuring Latour, RBH descendant advisor Isaac Gilliard, and RBH/Tufts student assistant researcher Jingxuan (William) Zhuang.
Jonathan Runstadler, professor and chair of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, in an op-ed for Science Magazine, discusses how global influenza threatens animal conservation and how the lack of effective control measures could endanger both wildlife species and major ecosystems.
Jessica Saab, production artist in University Communications and Marketing, is featuring her digital collages in a show, site:found, at Pint Museum of Design. It will be up year-round. Saab uses photographs of signage, various collections, and architecture as raw materials for her collages. The imagery reflects common experiences, past and present. Each piece contains snapshots of various locations, intermingling to give a sense of space.
Fernando Salinas-Quiroz, assistant professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, was spotlighted by the Society for Research in Child Development. Salinas-Quiroz answered questions about their passions, career trajectory, and work with the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression (SOGIE) Caucus.
Igor Sokolov, professor of mechanical engineering, led the research team that authored research titled “New High-Resolution Imaging Has Wide Potential Uses” in the journal Materials Today. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and colleagues from the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine are developing a noninvasive novel method of E. coli detection in the small intestine using an ingestible pill. The team recently published its work in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering’s website.
Sara Suzuki, senior researcher at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), was quoted in a WFYI article in October about her research, which tracked sociopolitical stress through the 2020 election and found that those who are arguably impacted most by politics experience more stress.
Mikhail Troitski, visiting professor at The Fletcher School, wrote the National Interest article “North Korea’s Combat Troops in Ukraine: What It Means for the West.”
Abiodun Williams, professor of the practice of international politics at The Fletcher School and Tisch College, discussed his new book, Kofi Annan and Global Leadership at the United Nations, at a WorldBoston event. Also, Williams gave an online talk about Kofi Annan’s tenure as U.N. Secretary-General to the 2024 Kofi Annan Changemakers, a program run by the Kofi Annan Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland. Read more about the book and what Williams believes are the United Nations’ successes and challenges on Tufts Now.
Research by EconoFact, an initiative of The Fletcher School that draws on the research, teaching, and policy experience of the more than 100 economists in its network to present incisive economic analysis on important and timely economic and social policies, was referenced in the NBC News article “McDonald’s is the latest battlefield in the Trump-Harris fight to reach low-wage voters.”
A team of researchers from Tufts University and the University of Texas at Dallas recently authored a paper on a cognitive architecture framework in the journal Artificial Intelligence. The team’s work aims to advance the field of artificial intelligence and develop AI agents that can handle novel and unexpected elements. The research team included numerous members of the Department of Computer Science at Tufts. Shivam Goel and Panagiotis Lymperopoulos, Ph.D. students, shared the role of first author. Ravenna Thielstrom and Evan Krause, research staff members; Patrick Feeney, Pierrick Lorang, and Sarah Schneider, all Ph.D. students; Yichen Wei, A23; Michael Hughes, assistant professor; Liping Liu, associate professor; Jivko Sinapov, associate professor; and Matthias Scheutz, Karol Family Applied Technology Professor, also collaborated on the research. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering’s website.
Abi Theirrien was promoted to Pre-College Program administrator team lead for University College.
Maggie Tiano was promoted to assistant director of student success for University College.