Kudos May 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.
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective September 1, 2024.
Ronald Kulich, Diagnostic Sciences, School of Dental Medicine
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective January 1, 2025.
Lawrence Ford, Physics and Astronomy, School of Arts and Sciences
Alexander Vilenkin, Physics and Astronomy, School of Arts and Sciences
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective April 1, 2025.
Saul Tzipori, Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective July 1, 2025.
Philip G., Haydon, Medicine, School of Medicine
Daniel Guy Jay, Developmental, Molecular, and Chemical Biology, School of Medicine
Kenneth Miller, Medicine, School of Medicine
Gregory Oxenkrug, Psychiatry, School of Medicine
Debra Poutsiaka, Medicine, School of Medicine
Albert John Sargent III, Psychiatry, School of Medicine
Norma Terrin, Medicine, Medicine, School of Medicine
Florina Tseng, Infectious Disease and Global Health, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective September 1, 2025.
Ann Easterbrooks, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, School of Arts and Sciences
Gérard Gasarian, Romance Studies, School of Arts and Sciences
Yannis Ioannides, Economics, School of Arts and Sciences
Kathleen Pollakowski, Romance Studies, School of Arts and Sciences
Martha Pott, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, School of Arts and Sciences
Eric Todd Quinto, Mathematics, School of Arts and Sciences
The following faculty are receiving emeriti status, effective January 1, 2026.
Michael Barsanti, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University
Judith Haber, English, School of Arts and Sciences
Carl Kirker-Head, Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Mary Labato, Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Cynthia Leveille-Webster, Clinical Sciences, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Douglas Matson, Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
Damian Archer, assistant dean for multicultural affairs and clinical assistant professor of family medicine, and Ramnath Subbaraman, associate professor of public health and community medicine, both at the School of Medicine, were appointed to the Massachusetts Public Health Council.
Gustavo Mahn Arteaga, assistant professor of prosthodontics and interim director of the Advanced Education in Esthetic and Operative Dentistry Program at the School of Dental Medicine, was honored with the 2024 Rising Star Faculty Award by the Academy of Operative Dentistry.
Milcah Bassel, lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, is a recipient of a 2025 New Jersey Individual Artist Fellowship.
Helen Boucher, dean at the School of Medicine, has been named to Becker’s Hospital Review 2025 list of Great Leaders in Healthcare.
Trent Bunker, A25, won a Barry Scholarship to study at Oxford University. The scholarship is awarded to the leading students of the United States in recognition of their dedication to the pursuit of truth. Students do not apply for this scholarship award and are instead nominated by faculty; Tufts faculty member Vickie Sullivan, Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science, nominated Bunker. Upon completion of his studies at Oxford, Bunker will then continue his studies at Harvard Law School.
Four Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) scientists were recognized by the American Society for Nutrition. The following have won career achievement awards: Sai Das, scientist, was part of the inaugural group designated as an Excellence in Nutrition Fellow, recognizing scientists who have made exceptional impacts through their work in nutrition research and/or its translation. Andrew Greenberg, Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Professor of Metabolism and Nutrition and senior scientist, was the recipient of the Osborne and Mendel Award recognizing outstanding recent basic research accomplishments in nutrition. Ed Saltzman, associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was the recipient of the Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition, which is the highest honor that the society bestows for notable lifetime achievements in the field of nutrition. Kyla Shea, scientist, was the recipient of the Haleon Consumer Healthcare Nutrition Science Award recognizing recent investigative contributions of significance to the basic understanding of human nutrition with focus on the roles of vitamins, minerals and other dietary bioactives to promote healthy aging and everyday wellness.
Scott Gyimesi, A26, who plays for the Tufts men’s basketball team, was named as one of 10 finalists nationally for the 2025 Jostens Trophy, a national award created by the Rotary Club of Salem, Virginia, and sponsored by Jostens, Inc., to recognize the most outstanding men’s and women’s division III basketball players of the year.
Justin Hollander, A96, A25P, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning, won the top prize given to an urban planning scholar in the United States: the 2025 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning. He received the prize at a ceremony in Los Angeles in March.
Krishna Kumar, Robinson Professor of Chemistry, won the 2025 Rao Makineni Lectureship, which recognizes an individual who has made a recent contribution of unusual merit to research in the peptide science field.
Amy Lee, associate professor of family medicine and dean of admissions at the School of Medicine, was named the 2025 Family Physician of the Year by the Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians.
Michael Levin, A92, Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology at the School of Arts and Sciences, Elena Naumova, professor in the Division of Nutrition Epidemiology and Data Science and director of the Tufts Initiative for Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Matthias Scheutz, Karol Family Applied Technology Professor in Computer Science and director of the Human-Robot Interaction Lab, were named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific society. They join 468 other scientists, engineers, and innovators from many scientific disciplines being recognized for their scientific achievements and 17 other current Tufts faculty as fellows of the AAAS.
Adam Lowenstein, assistant professor at the School of Dental Medicine, was a recipient of an American Dental Association 10 Under 10 Award. This award recognizes 10 dentists who graduated from a dental school accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation less than 10 years ago and celebrates dentists who demonstrate excellence and inspire others in science, research, and education, practice excellence, philanthropy, leadership, and advocacy. The announcement of the award was a part of the Elevate Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. in March.
Eva Lundsager and Timothy Hyunsoo Lee, both lecturers at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, are recipients of a Creative Individuals Grant from Mass Cultural Council. Additionally, Hyunsoo Lee is participating in the group exhibition The culture of the landscape: the mountain, the tree and the river organized by Casa Asia at the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid, Spain.
Sam Mancinelli, assistant coach of the women’s basketball team, has been named to the WBCA Thirty Under 30 by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. Read more about the award on the Tufts Athletics website.
Armaan Mathur, student at The Fletcher School, was on the team that won the Raisina-IE Global Student Challenge in New Delhi, India. This year’s challenge focused on Bridging the North-South Divide. Students had four weeks to tackle the cases and propose actionable solutions to a panel of experts.
Neda Moridpour, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, was awarded the Mass Cultural Council’s Grant for Creative Individuals in March 2025. Moridpour participated in a panel titled “Creative Disobedience: Iranian Artists on Feminism, Protest, and Power” as part of Layers of Place: MIT Augmented Reality exhibition at MIT.
Ewan Paul, senior lab animal caretaker at the School of Medicine, celebrated his 50th anniversary at Tufts. Paul’s expertise and guidance has contributed to the success of the lab animal care service, as the longest continuously AAALAC accredited institution in the world.
Sonya Satinsky, executive director of health and wellness at the Health Services Center, was recently awarded the Distinguished Practitioner Award from the Department of Applied Health Science at the Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington. Satinsky received both her MPH and Ph.D. in Health Behavior from IU School of Public Health.
Donna Slonim, professor of computer science, was named a 2025 Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology. Slonim was selected as a fellow based on her extensive contributions to the computational biology field, particularly her work using machine learning to better understand maternal and fetal health. She will be honored along with the other 2025 Fellows at the joint Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology and European Conference on Computational Biology in July.
Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was named a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, a prestigious honor recognizing his extraordinary contributions in the field of biomedical devices, chemical and biological sensors, point-of-care diagnostics, and lab-on-a-chip microsystems. This recognition highlights not only his technical excellence, but also the innovative spirit that describes his interdisciplinary work at Tufts. Read more about this recognition on the School of Engineering’s website.
Arthur Tischler, professor of anatomic and clinical pathology at the School of Medicine, was selected as the recipient of the 2025 Endocrine Pathology Lifetime Achievement Award by the Endocrine Pathology Society.
David Walt, affiliate professor of chemistry, was awarded a 2024 National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, bestowed by the president of the United States to America’s leading innovators.
Several individual students and teams won the 2025 Tufts New Ventures Competition Finals, hosted by the Derby Entrepreneurship Center. The list of winners is available on the Gordon Institute’s website.
Tufts’ virtual power purchase agreement effort will be recognized by the Environmental Business Council of New England. Read more about the recognition on Tufts Now.
Pilar Alcaide, assistant dean of faculty development and Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor of Immunology, was interviewed for a profile published by the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research.
Karin Arsenault, D94, Dr. Hilde H. Tillman, D49, Professor in Geriatric Dentistry, Public Health, and Community Service, and Peter Arsenault, D94, professor of comprehensive care, both at the School of Dental Medicine, authored “A Comprehensive Study Evaluating Dental Patient Eye Safety with a Focus on Biological and Physical Hazards” in the Journal of the Massachusetts Dental Society. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Timothy Atherton, professor of physics and astronomy, co-wrote a paper entitled “Shape-recovering liquids” that was published in the Nature Physics journal. The paper describes the authors’ study, which found that strong binding and two-dimensional assembly of ferromagnetic particles at a liquid-liquid interface not only suppresses emulsification but also increases interfacial tension. Consequently, the particle-stabilized interface in a cylindrical vessel rapidly and reproducibly adopts the shape of a Grecian urn after vigorous agitation.
Sarah Booth, director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA), was a senior author on a new study co-authored with HNRCA colleagues entitled “Low Vitamin K Intake Impairs Cognition, Neurogenesis, and Elevates Neuroinflammation in C57BL/6 Mice” published in the Journal of Nutrition. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, and Joel Trachtman, Henry J. Braker Professor of Commercial Law at The Fletcher School, wrote the book Defeating Disinformation Digital Platform Responsibility, Regulation and Content Moderation on the Global Technological Commons published by Cambridge University Press. Chakravorti and Trachtman discuss the book in a video on Fletcher’s website. Additionally, Chakravorti is quoted in the Washington Post article “Meta scrambled to silence a tell-all book. Now it’s a bestseller” and authored the India Today article “Walk like a penguin” in which he discusses possible next steps India can take in response to U.S. tariffs.
Kate Conlon, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, has a solo exhibition, A Hole Hanging in the Air, on view through June 1 at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Tom Dannenbaum, associate professor of international law at The Fletcher School, authored the Just Security analysis “Gaza and Israel’s Renewed Policy of Deprivation.”
Dan Drezner, distinguished professor of international politics at The Fletcher School, commented on the political progression of Secretary of State Marco Rubio for NBC News, addressed the Trump administration’s impact on global democracy in a World Politics Review article, and was interviewed for the NPR All Things Considered segment “Mixed messages on tariffs raise scrutiny on Trump aides.” Drezner also spoke at a recent World Boston talk as part of the “Great Decisions” series.
Nassir Ghaemi, professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, was featured in WHYY’s The Pulse segment titled “(Mis)Diagnosis: Bipolar Disorder.” Ghaemi unpacks the rise in bipolar diagnoses and the debate among experts.
Mags Harries, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, selected “The Artist’s Chair” as the focus of her solo outing at the Boston Sculptors Gallery.
Thomas Hout, adjunct senior lecturer of strategic management at The Fletcher School, authored the Harvard Business Review article “The Secrets of Extraordinary Low-Cost Operators.”
Shafiqul Islam, professor of civil and environmental engineering, delivered the keynote lecture at the Center of Excellence in Engineering Diplomacy launch in Bangladesh. He shared insights on water security, energy transitions, and climate resilience. Read more about the lecture on the School of Engineering website.
David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor in Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, Barry Trimmer, professor of biology, Sophia Letcher, biomedical engineering doctoral student, Halla Clausi, biomedical engineering student, Olivia Calkins, E24, and Aidan McCreary, A23, published their research “Establishment and characterization of a non-adherent insect cell line for cultivated meat” in the journal Scientific Reports.
Barbara Kates-Garnick, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for the CommonWealth Beacon article “EPA move to undermine greenhouse gas regulation will hurt U.S. competitiveness, says former Mass. energy official” and discussed ways for the wind industry to continue to grow under the Trump administration on The Climate One podcast episode “Trump Breaks Wind?”
Michael Klein, professor at The Fletcher School, led an EconoFact podcast about the impact of Trump’s policies on the economy. Klein is also quoted in Washington Post and Boston Globe articles on President Trump’s tariffs.
Susan Landau, professor of cyber security and policy in the Department of Computer Science, delivered the keynote address on the critical role of security research in shaping policy at the 29th International Workshop on Security Protocols in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Titled “How to Talk So Policymakers Will Listen,” Landau’s presentation provided insights into bridging the gap between technical expertise and policy decision-making.
Jennie Jieun Lee, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and artist David Permén have an exhibition at Signal Center for Contemporary Art in Malmö, Sweden.
Stephen Levine, associate professor emeritus at the School of Engineering, had a 2008 article in the Journal of Industrial Ecology named as one of the top 25 most important articles published in the journal’s 25-year history. Read about this accomplishment on the School of Engineering’s website.
Yi-Pin Lin, associate professor of infectious disease and global health at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, and colleagues from Tufts and other institutions authored “Mechanistic insights into the structure-based design of a CspZ-targeting Lyme disease vaccine” in the journal Nature Communications. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Patte Loper, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, gave an artist talk titled “Spiders in the Death Zone: recuperative ecologies in a time of political collapse” at MassArt.
Pavel Luzin, visiting scholar at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the ABC News articles “Trump-Putin call poses choice of sanctions or ‘escalation,’ analysts say” and “Ukraine’s ‘drone sanctions’ on Russia bring bite to peace talks strategy: Analysts.”
Chris Maliga, senior studio manager of photography at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, had work featured in the exhibition MOVEMENT/S at Emerson Contemporary Media Art Gallery.
Michael MacMahon, lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, and artist Michael Zachary have new work featured in Shallow Time, Deep Time at Simmons University. This exhibition will be on view through May 15.
Mike Mandel, lecturer, and Chantal Zakari, professor of the practice, both at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, participated in the Multiple Formats Art Book Fair and Symposium at Boston University. More than 150 national and international exhibitors participated in this fair. Additionally, Mandel and Zakari participated in the Artist’s Books Days at the Clark Museum, which was the museum’s inaugural book expo.
Gina McCarthy, AG81, senior fellow at the Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School, joined ABC News to discuss the Trump administration’s rollback of EPA regulations. McCarthy was also interviewed for the CommonWealth Beacon article “‘We have time to reverse this. We have time to step up.’”
Melissa McCracken, assistant professor of international environmental policy at The Fletcher School, co-authored The Conversation article “Water cooperation is essential when countries share lakes and rivers—yet it’s been deteriorating in many places, with serious consequences.”
Chris Miller, professor at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for a Yahoo Finance segment on the future of semiconductor chip manufacturing in the United States and is quoted in an article published by The Verge about how tariffs may affect the AI industry.
Dariush Mozaffarian, director of the Food is Medicine Institute at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was a senior author on a study co-authored with colleagues from Tufts and other institutions entitled “Estimated Impact of Medically Tailored Meals on Health Care Use and Expenditures in 50 U.S. States” published in the journal Health Affairs. Read more about this research on Tufts Now. Mozaffarian along with other Food is Medicine Institute experts authored additional papers in the latest issue of Health Affairs about Food is Medicine, a new approach to guide research and policy, advancing the FDA’s human foods program, Medicaid nutrition, and states’ use of Medicaid managed care.
Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric, International Literary, and Cultural Studies, appeared in the French documentary Miyazaki: Spirit of Nature in which she discussed Miyazaki’s philosophy of environmentalism and human responsibility. The film premiered at the 81st annual Venice International Film Festival.
Ayomide Oloyede, A25, was named the 2025 Wendell Phillips Speaker and will address the graduating class at this year’s Baccalaureate Ceremony. The Wendell Phillips Award was established in 1896, and it is given annually to a senior who demonstrates both marked ability as a speaker and a high sense of public responsibility. The Committee on Student Life selects the speaker, and the speech each year is intended to deliver a message about civic engagement in our time.
Karen Panetta, Distinguished Professor and dean of graduate education at the School of Engineering, was quoted in the TechTarget article “10 real-world agentic AI examples and use cases.”
Matthew Panzer, professor and dean of research at the School of Engineering, delivered a lecture at the Royal Society in London, presenting innovative research on ionogel and eutectogel electrolytes for wearable health sensors. His talk, titled “Ionogel and Eutectogel Electrolytes for Wearable Sensors to Support Healthy Aging,” focused on developing unobtrusive monitoring technologies that help older adults maintain their independence. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering’s website.
Mihaela Papa, senior fellow at The Fletcher School, authored an Australian Institute of International Affairs article titled “U.S. Policy on BRICS: A Temporary Fix or a Strategic Reset?”
Alex Pascal, adjunct associate professor of public policy at The Fletcher School, co-authored a Tech Policy piece on the unique positioning for state governments to lead the charge in deploying AI in public service.
Ken Pucker, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the New York Times article “The Fall of Forever 21 Means Fast Fashion Got Faster” and in the Trellis article “3 ways H&M is improving its footprint—and the hurdles that remain.”
Laura Beth Reese, studio operations manager at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, earlier this year had a solo show, #influenced, at the Blue Sky Gallery at the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts in Portland, Oregon.
Kayla Sample, assistant clinical professor, Claire Fellman, associate clinical professor, Jennifer Grady, V12, assistant clinical professor, and Gregory Wolfus, V98, assistant clinical professor, all at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, were recently featured on the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Veterinary Vertex podcast, where they discussed their recent article about urinalysis screening tools that validate a best practice for veterinary clinics.
Paul Salamh, visiting associate professor of rehabilitation sciences at the School of Medicine, and other researchers authored two papers: “Risk Factors Associated with New Onset of Shoulder Pain and Injury Among the Athletic Population: A Systematic Review of the Literature” in International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy and “An international consensus on the etiology, risk factors, diagnosis and management for individuals with Frozen Shoulder: a Delphi study” in the Journal of Manual and Manipulative Therapy. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Monica Duffy Toft, academic dean, professor of international politics, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School, wrote the Foreign Affairs article “The Return of Spheres of Influence” and was quoted in the New York Times article “Trump Discussion With Putin to Focus on What Ukraine Will Lose.”
Abiodun Williams, F85, FG87, professor of the practice of international politics at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life, participated in a two-day Symposium on Peacemaking in a Multipolar World: Lessons Learned, organized by Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Fundación Acordemos. Williams joined a panel discussion on Challenges of Implementation.
Robin Wilson, research associate at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA), was selected as one of five scientists out of 1,400 to present an Abstract of Distinction in the ASN President’s Oral Session at NUTRITION 2025. He will be presenting his work on “Role of Myeloid Acyl CoA Synthetase 4 in Diet-induced Obesity.”
Josephine Wolff, associate professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School, is quoted in the CNET article “Google Sues Scammers Behind Thousands of Fake Business Listings on Maps” and a Bankrate article “Two-factor authentication for your financial accounts—here’s how secure it really is.”
Yu Zhao, postdoctoral scholar, and Qiaobing Xu, professor of biomedical engineering, led researchers from Tufts and other institutions in a published study titled “Antitumour vaccination via the targeted proteolysis of antigens isolated from tumour lysates” in Nature Biomedical Engineering. The research was written about in Futurity. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts, along with Protect Democracy, authored a study titled “Report: How Does Gen Z Really Feel about Democracy?” Read more about the study on Tufts Now.
Several School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University faculty and staff showed work in the exhibition Photo / Faculty at the Photographic Resource Center at Lesley University last month.
Julia Keith was promoted to senior program administrator for communications and engagement at the Tufts International Center.