Kudos January 2025

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. 

Alexander Blanchette, associate professor of anthropology, and Silvia Bottinelli, senior lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, led a proposal that resulted in the Mellon Foundation approving a grant to Tufts University to support research and curricular initiatives that model the university as an environmental commons. At the intersection of the Environmental Studies Program and the Center for Humanities at Tufts, the project also received very generous pledges of support from faculty across the School of Arts and Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The grant will provide funding over three years for events, a postdoctoral scholar, dissertation affiliates, and artists and activists in residence as Tufts considers collaborations (inside and outside the university) that can lead to different kinds of agricultural-ecological knowledge and values.

Casey D’Annolfo, men’s lacrosse team head coach, received the 2024 United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division III Coach of the Year honors. 

Erik Dopman, associate professor of biology, received an NSF grant from the Division of Environmental Biology for the project Coupling of Barriers to Gene Exchange: The Role of Demographic, Genetic, and Adaptive Mechanisms in the European Corn Borer Moth. 

Obafemi Jinadu, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected as a 2024 recipient of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Signal Processing Society Scholarship. This award, which includes three consecutive years of financial support and a one-year student membership in IEEE and the Signal Processing Society, recognizes Jinadu’s dedication to advancing the field of engineering through both academic coursework and impactful research.

David Kaplan, distinguished professor and Stern Family Professor of Engineering, Renata Micha, adjunct associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Dariush Mozaffarian, director of Tufts Food is Medicine Institute, and John Wong, professor at the School of Medicine, have been named to the Clarivate 2024 ranking of the world’s most highly cited researchers. The researchers in the Clarivate 2024 list have a significant impact on the research community as judged by the rate their work is cited by their peers, according to Clarivate, an information and analytics firm focused on research. The highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations for a field or fields and publication year, and only about one in 1,000 researchers worldwide qualify. Read more about this accomplishment on Tufts Now.

Frank Lehman, associate professor of music, is the winner of the Society for Music Theory’s (SMT) Public Facing Scholarship Award for his interactive article in the New York Times, “How to Write Music for Rolling Boulders.” The SMT award is in recognition of significant contributions to music theory, analysis, or history of theory. The Public-Facing Scholarship Award is given to publications in all professional and popular media that advance the public’s knowledge and appreciation of music theory. This award was instituted by the SMT in 2023 in light of a growing sense of the importance of music-theoretical work that reaches beyond academia, appearing in venues accessible to a wide and non-specialist audience.

Jonelle Lonergan, a product manager at Tufts Technology Services, made her debut on Jeopardy! on November 18.

Marisol Rivera-Ramirez, V26, was awarded the Veterinary Student Compassionate Care Scholarship from the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Alliance (HSVMA) for her commitment to animal welfare. Rivera-Ramirez is one of five veterinary students selected nationally by the HSVMA this year for this scholarship. She will receive $10,000 to put toward her education at Cummings School. Read more about this scholarship on the Cummings School website. 

Bernard Simonin, professor of marketing and international business at The Fletcher School, and two co-authors won the S. Tamer Cavusgil Award from the American Marketing Association. The award honors the authors of a Journal of International Marketing article from the most recent calendar year that has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of international marketing management. Simonin’s award-winning paper delves into a core question for global enterprises: to what extent should firms localize versus standardize their market strategies? Read more about the award on The Fletcher School website.

The School of Dental Medicine announced the D28 recipients of the 2024–2025 Dean’s Research Honors Scholarship. The seven student awardees are: Matthew Chen, Dana Moskowitz, Tara Gharib Parsa, Jasmin Sabah, Mehak Sidhu, Chelsea Ty, and Nikaela Walker. These first-year dental students are passionate in their desire to pursue research opportunities and have superior academic records coming into dental school. They each chose a faculty research mentor with whom they will meet regularly to discuss relevant publications as they work together to conceptualize and create a research proposal, perform the research, and present a research poster at the School of Dental Medicine’s annual Bates-Andrews Research Day in 2026. 

The Gordon Institute announced the winning teams of this year’s Ideas Competition, hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. Read a full description about each winning team and their entry on the institute’s website.

Tufts University marked a milestone on its path to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 when it announced on November 21 its participation in the Consortium for Climate Solutions with the goal to reduce its Boston health sciences campus energy-related emissions by 40%. The Consortium for Climate Solutions, a group that includes Tufts and other Boston-based institutions, are pioneering a strategy for broadening access to large-scale renewable energy projects.

Zviad Adzinbaia, Ph.D. student at The Fletcher School, authored the article “Abandoning Georgia to the Kremlin would be a big geopolitical blunder” in Atlantic Council.

Bree Aldridge, professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the School of Medicine and a professor of biomedical engineering at the School of Engineering, is a senior co-author on a new paper titled “Single-cell imaging of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis cell cycle reveals linear and heterogenous growth.” The paper was published in Nature Microbiology. Christin (Eun Seon) Chung, postdoctoral fellow at the School of Medicine, is a first author on the paper, which also featured contributions from researchers at other institutions. Read more about the study on Tufts Now.

Dipali Anumol, Ph.D. student, Dyan Mazurana, research professor, and Kimberly Theidon, associate professor, all at The Fletcher School, authored the book Challenging Conceptions: Children Born of Wartime Rape and Sexual Exploitation, which was awarded the Monograph Prize by the American Anthropological Association’s Council on Anthropology and Reproduction. 

Luis Arnías, lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, screened his short film Bisagras at the Media City Film Festival virtually and will screen it in person at the Institute of Contemporary Art on January 16, 2025, at 7 p.m. The screening is part of the Lose Your Mother: A Film Shorts Program by BlackStar Projects.

Elizabeth Arnolds, Stevens Faculty Development Professor, and Amanda Martinot, associate professor, both at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, tested a drug’s effectiveness in reducing lung disease caused by COVID-19. Their research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, highlights animal model studies at Tufts New England Regional Biosafety Lab. Read more about the study on the Cummings School website.

Amar Bhidé, professor emeritus at The Fletcher School, authored the book Uncertainty and Enterprise: Venturing Beyond the Known. Bhidé and the book are featured in a New York Times op-ed piece titled “The Certainty of Uncertainty.”

Ruby Belle Booth, researcher at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), discussed the issues that motivated young voters in The 74.

Viking Bohman, Ph.D. student at The Fletcher School, and his co-author explore how President-Elect Donald Trump may approach economic competition with China in a piece for The Wire China.

Helen Boucher, dean of the School of Medicine, is quoted in the JAMA article “UN Meeting Highlights Antimicrobial Resistance ‘Epiphany’—Lack of Antibiotic Access is a Key Driver.”

Ria Brodell, lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, contributed to the anthology Gender Violence, Art and the Viewer: An Intervention. The book features conversations with writer and art historian Ellen Caldwell about contemporary art, practice and pedagogy, and issues around gender violence, censorship, and erasure.

Katrina Burgess, professor of political economy at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for C-SPAN’s Washington Journal segment titled “Katrina Burgess on the History of Mass Deportations and ‘Operation Wetback.’”

Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, is featured in a DW News article discussing Elon Musk’s political goals and is quoted in a Financial Times article titled “‘Numero uno’: US takes aim at Gautam Adani.” Chakravorti also wrote a Foreign Policy article addressing online disinformation challenges.

Michael Cohen, affiliate at The Fletcher School, offered insights in the Financial Times article “How the Democrats’ worker-centered trade policy failed.” 

Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at The Fletcher School, is quoted in a L’Orient Today article, co-authored “International Law in Gaza: Belligerent Intent and Provisional Measures” published in American Journal of International Law, was featured in a Leading Britain’s Conversation segment on whether ICC warrants for Israeli and Hamas officials have a real-world impact, and authored a Just Security article on what happens next after the ICC warrants for Israeli and Hamas leaders. 

Sai Das, scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts, is quoted about her leadership on the NIH-funded Nutrition for Precision Health Study in a CBS Sunday Morning segment. 

Frank David, professor of the practice in the Department of Biology, co-authored an article in JAMA Oncology on drug pricing, pharma innovation, and the Inflation Reduction Act. David was interviewed about this topic for an Oncology News Central article. David’s JAMA Oncology article also received a call-out in the Cost Curve newsletter on the economics of the pharma industry, which is written by Brian Reid, a senior fellow at the Center for the Evaluation of Value and Risk in Health at Tufts.

Ian DeStefano, assistant clinical professor, and Claire Fellman, associate professor of clinical sciences, both at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, were mentioned in an editorial (“Raising awareness: the AVMA and antimicrobial stewardship”) by Lisa Fortier, the editor-in-chief at Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) and the American Journal of Veterinary Research. Similarly, JAVMA editor Michael Costin authored “AVMA efforts to promote antimicrobial stewardship in the veterinary profession” and included findings from their white paper and research study. Companion animal antimicrobial stewardship efforts led by Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Ohio State University, and the University of Minnesota were highlighted in JAVMA in November. Collaboration by investigators at the three schools led to acceptance of two articles, a white paper on antimicrobial stewardship in veterinary schools, “Change starts at home: summary of the 2023 inaugural Small Animal Antimicrobial Stewardship Workshop for U.S. Veterinary Schools,” and an associated research study, “A survey of U.S. and Caribbean veterinary schools reveals strengths and opportunities in antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control activities.” Read more about all of this research on the Cummings School website.

Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation and research professor at The Fletcher School, authored a BBC Africa piece titled “Unconventional Trump brings openings and perils for Africa;” a piece in The Guardian titled “People in Sudan and Gaza are starving. The international community must act;” and an essay for London Review of Books titled “ICC: Most Wanted.” de Waal was also featured in an AlJazeera segment titled “Is there any way to stop the war in Sudan?” and is quoted in a Speigel article about the war in Sudan.

Deborah Donahue-Keegan, lecturer, Department of Education, co-authored "Social Emotional Learning for Wellbeing and Equity in Higher Education," a chapter in The Handbook of Social and Emotional Learning (second edition). 

Dan Drezner, Distinguished Professor of International Politics at The Fletcher School, discussed what the world can expect from a second Trump administration in an episode of “The Foreign Affairs Interview” podcast. Also for Foreign Affairs, Drezner authored “The End of American Exceptionalism.” Drezner’s analysis was cited in a New York Times article covering President-Elect Trump’s foreign policy appointments, and Drezner was quoted in a Boston Globe article about how business and government will interact in a second Trump administration.

Lisa Freeman, professor of clinical sciences, John Rush, professor of clinical sciences, and Esther Gisela Martinez-Romero, assistant professor of clinical sciences, all at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, alongside researchers from other institutions, authored “Dogs with diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy have higher urine di-docosahexaenoyl (22:6)-bis(monoacylglycerol)phosphate, a biomarker of phospholipidosis” in the American Journal of Veterinary Research. The study’s findings support the possible presence of primary or secondary phospholipidosis in dogs with diet-associated DCM and provide a plausible mechanism that fits with electron microscopic findings in these dogs.

Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean of The Fletcher School, is quoted in the Boston Globe article “‘We are still in’: Cities and states vow to uphold climate goals as Trump returns.” Gallagher is also featured in the NPR Marketplace segment “At COP29, wealthy and poor nations negotiate to split the climate bill.”

Noorya Hayat, senior researcher at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), is quoted in a WCVB piece on the top issues Gen Z voters care about. 

Sarah Hengel, assistant professor of biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, along with Kara Bernstein, professor of biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and their collaborators from Tufts, University of Pennsylvania, and other institutions authored “The human Shu complex promotes RAD51 activity by modulating RPA dynamics on ssDNA” in Nature Communications. Hengel and the team at Tufts recently authored a related review in Nucleic Acids Research Molecular Medicine. Read more about the study on Tufts Now. 

Justin Hollander, A96, A25P, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, spoke about the Tufts project to bring Bus Rapid Transit to Worcester, Massachusetts, on “Talk of the Commonwealth” show on AM830 WCRN. (Hollander’s appearance begins at 1:39.) Hollander, along with Karen Jacobsen, Henry J. Leir Professor in Global Migration at The Fletcher School, Sonya Sternlieb, G23, and Abay Yimere, affiliate at The Fletcher School, authored “Urban policy responses to climate hazards in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia” in the journal City and Environment Interactions.

Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis, authored an opinion piece in the CommonWealth Beacon on the millionaires tax. He also discussed how AI can be useful in day-to-day life in a Radio Boston segment, the Massachusetts ballot question results in the Boston Globe, and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy’s response to President-Elect Trump on WBUR.

Maulik Jagnani, assistant professor of environmental economics at The Fletcher School, co-authored a piece on the dangers of indoor air pollution for The Business Standard. 

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, senior director at the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), is quoted about the responsibility of colleges and universities to help students vote in USA Today; on political knowledge among younger generations in Teen Vogue; and on factors that influenced youth voting in the 2024 election on NBC News. Kawashima-Ginsberg and Alberto Medina, communications team lead at CIRCLE, commented on the issues that motivated youth voters in a WGBH piece. Kawashima-Ginsberg and Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE, are quoted in an article highlighting 2024 youth voter data in the Boston Globe.

Cristin Kelley, assistant clinical professor of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, authored a research paper titled “Comparison of Manual Restraint With and Without Sedation on Outcomes for Wild Birds Undergoing Decontamination” in the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery. Read more about the research on the Cummings School website. 

Michael Klein, William L. Clayton Professor of International Economic Affairs at The Fletcher School, was featured in the NPR Marketplace segment “Would changing the Fed’s inflation target help people afford homes?” and in an EconoFact podcast episode “Has Working from Home Given Way to Return to Office?” Klein also comments on President-Elect Trump’s trade policy in a Boston Globe article titled “Trump takes the ‘free’ out of free trade” and comments in another Boston Globe article titled “Warning: Rough Trump trade seas ahead” about how Trump’s tariff threats extend far beyond trade and will be damaging.

Carsten Kowalczyk, associate professor of international economics at The Fletcher School, was quoted in The Cut article titled “‘Should I Make Big Purchases Now?’” about how new tariffs will affect consumer prices.

Norman Lam, postdoctoral associate working in the lab of Michael Halassa, associate professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine, led a study with contributions by Halassa, other Tufts researchers, as well as researchers from other institutions published in Nature titled “Prefrontal transthalamic uncertainty processing drives flexible switching.” The paper, as well as how Halassa’s research and the work in his lab is informing artificial intelligence, are featured on Tufts Now.

Jonathan Lamontagne, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Jacob Wessel, Ph.D. student in the School of Engineering, have been working with researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Peking University, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and recently authored research titled “Large Ensemble Exploration of Global Energy Transitions Under National Emissions Pledges,” in the journal Earth’s Future. The research explores how different countries may meet emissions reduction goals and how impacts vary regionally. They factor in 11 sources of uncertainty from different sectors including socioeconomics, technology, institutions, demand patterns, and more. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering website. 

Susan Landau, professor in cybersecurity and policy at The Fletcher School and the School of Engineering and senior fellow in the Center for International Law and Governance, authored two Lawfare articles about national security.  

Peter Levine, associate dean for academic affairs and Lincoln Filene Professor of Citizenship and Public Affairs at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Studies, authored an op-ed in The Fulcrum on the need for broad-based pro-democracy civic movements.

Cathy Lu, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, currently has work featured in several exhibitions: Spirit House at the Cantor Art Center, Stanford University, through January 26, 2025; A Garden of Promise and Dissent at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut, through March 16, 2025; The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., through September 2025; and Prospect.6 New Orleans, on view through February 2, 2025.

Orla Mahoney-Wages, associate clinical professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, was quoted throughout an American Kennel Club story on the use of Levothyroxine, a drug to treat hypothyroidism in dogs.

Daniel Maxwell, professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is quoted in the AP article “Food aid interventions can curb climate change-induced hardship. But should they do more?”

Jennifer McAndrew, senior director of strategy, operations, and communications at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Studies, commented on state laws that create barriers for young voters in a TODAY Show segment. McAndrew also discussed the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement with WGBH.

Chris Miller, professor of international history at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the MSN article “U.S. tech expert calls for preparedness for policy shift under 2nd Trump administration.” Miller was interviewed for the CNBC International Squawk Box Asia segment “Chip War author discusses Trump 2.0’s impact on U.S. semiconductor policy;” a CNBC Squawk Box segment titled “CHIPS Act is already having a major impact on investment and chip manufacturing, says Chris Miller;” and for an Epoca Negócios article about the future of the microcomputer industry considering big tech’s recent investments.

Nathan Moreno, A25, commented on youth political engagement, noting resources at Tufts, in a WCVB piece.

Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Tufts Food is Medicine Institute, examined the role of dark chocolate in a healthy diet, in a New York Times article.

Markus Nemitz, assistant professor at the School of Engineering, led newly published research titled “FDM-Printed CMOS Logic Gates from Flexing Beam Mechanisms for the Control of Soft Robotic Systems” in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems. The research team includes Ph.D. students Savita Kendre and Cem Aygül, undergraduates Calvin Page and Lehong Wang, alongside Nemitz, who joined Tufts in 2024 from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and leads the Nemitz Robotics Group. Read more about this research on the School of Engineering website. 

Chidi Odinkalu, professor of the practice of international human rights law at The Fletcher School, for the 140th anniversary of the Berlin Conference, co-authored an African Arguments article that reflects on its enduring legacy.

Eshita Pandey, student in the Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy program at The Fletcher School, authored the GovernanceNow piece “AI and the copyright dilemma: What India needs to do.”

Mihaela Papa, senior fellow at The Fletcher School, authored “BRICS in Transition: From the Kazan Summit to Brazil’s 2025 Presidency,” in Ensured. The article delves into how Brazil might approach the 2025 BRICS presidency.

Cornelia Peterson, assistant professor of comparative pathobiology at the Hospital for Large Animals at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, had four recently published articles highlighting the findings of her work, in the journals Orbit, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, and Topics in Companion Animal Medicine. Read more about Peterson and her recently published work on the Cummings School website.

Kenneth Pucker, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, argued against fast fashion in the Open for Debate podcast episode “Fast Fashion: Shop or Stop?” 

Jay Rumas, Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy student at The Fletcher School, authored an opinion piece for the Boston Globe, in which Rumas advocates for protecting displaced people who seek refuge in Massachusetts.

Fernando Salinas-Quiroz, assistant professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Boston City Council. The discussion focused on the significance of community spaces for LGBTQ+ youth and their impact on public health. (Salinas-Quiroz’s segment begins at 52:11.)

Sima Samar, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, had her book Outspoken: My Fight for Freedom and Human Rights in Afghanistan shortlisted for the 2024 Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing. Read more about Samar’s book on Tufts Now.

Brian Schaffner, Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies in the political science department and the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Studies, and Caroline Soler, A25, discussed how political pollsters have implemented methodological changes to surveys in a Time article. Read more about their research on Tufts Now.

Tara Sonenshine, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, wrote an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun titled “In Maryland, the stage is set for a battle over immigration.”

Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading research for a new patch that tracks eight variables, including gait and head motion. The patch would detect both cognitive decline and a person’s risk for falling in real time. A recent Boston Globe article features this patch, which aims to be an unobtrusive, wearable, affordable device for elder care.

Moyosore Tillery, assistant professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science at the School of Medicine, explained how foot health impacts well-being—and how small steps can make a big difference—in a Boston Globe article.

Mikhail Troitskiy, visiting professor at The Fletcher School, wrote that “open-ended continuation” of the Russia-Ukraine war is “the likeliest scenario for the months to come,” in the National Interest.

Rockford Weitz, professor of the practice in maritime studies at The Fletcher School, told Arctic Today that the United States can learn from Canada and Finland’s success with icebreaker vessels.

Abiodun Williams, professor of the practice of international politics at The Fletcher School, was recently on a panel at the United Nations in New York discussing his book Kofi Annan and Global Leadership at the United Nations. Read more about the book on Tufts Now.

Athanasios Zavras, DG93, Delta Dental of Massachusetts Professor of Public Health and Community Service, department chair, and assistant dean for faculty advancement at the School of Dental Medicine, is quoted in the Health.com article “RFK Jr. Claims Fluoride in Drinking Water is ‘Dangerous’—Here’s What the Science Says.”

New research supported by the Interdisciplinary Research Innovation Fund at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy highlights an often-overlooked aspect of sustainable diets research: How the production and consumption of food impacts people, communities, and animals—the social dimension of sustainable food. In a publication in the journal Nature Food, the researchers, including several from Tufts, present a definition of the social dimension of sustainable diets, clarify its boundaries, and propose corresponding outcomes. The paper emphasizes the need for co-developed solutions with affected communities, citing the Delta GREENS project, a collaborative effort by Tougaloo College, Ruben V. Anderson Center for Justice, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Delta Health Center, and Tufts University, as an active example of a successful community-driven approach. Read more about the research on the Friedman School on Tufts Now.

Tufts University is a founding partner for the recently announced National Science Foundation Innovation Corps Hub: New England Region. The regional Innovation Corps Hubs, part of a national network of 13 such groups, help provide entrepreneurial training to researchers across all fields of science and engineering, working to build and sustain an innovation ecosystem accessible to researchers. The NSF I-Corps Hub: New England Region is a partnership of eight universities, led by MIT. As one of the founding partners, Tufts is on the leadership team for the hub and will connect researchers from schools across the university to the New England Hub programming as well as running programming locally across the university, focusing on helping researchers take the first steps towards exploring the translation of their research results into innovations that can help society. Read more about it on Tufts Now.

Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha was promoted to professor (clinician/scholar) in the departments of public health and community medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, and medicine at the School of Medicine.