Kudos September 2025

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. 

Alexia Berg, assistant clinical professor, Sabrina Manley, adjunct assistant professor, Elizabeth Rozanski, professor, all from Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, alongside Benjamin Sweigart, affiliate in the Office of the Vice Provost, and a colleague from North Carolina State University, received an honorable mention in the Outstanding Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) Resident Manuscript Award category for their manuscript titled “Intranasal and intravenous apomorphine outperform ropinirole ocular drops for induction of emesis in dogs within ten minutes: a randomized, controlled clinical trial,” which was published in the March 2024 issue JAVMA. 

Daniel Opara, E25, EG26, was selected as a 2025 Patti Grace Smith Fellow. The program supports Black undergrads in aerospace, connecting them to top internships across the industry. Read more about Opara’s fellowship on the School of Engineering website.

Greses Pérez, McDonnell Family Assistant Professor of Engineering Education and Fellow at Tufts University’s Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO), was selected as the 2025 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. This fellowship will support her ongoing work on how multilingual and multidialectal communities learn and apply engineering in ways that reflect their lived experiences and cultural understandings.

Sanjana Puri, M26, was honored with the prestigious Past Presidents’ Circle Fund Award from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology.  

Deeb Salem, professor at the School of Medicine, was appointed chair of the Massachusetts Medical Society Committee on Continuing Education Review. 

Gregory Wolfus, associate clinical professor and director of Tufts at Tech at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, received the Massachusetts Veterinary Medical Association’s Distinguished Service Award. Read more about the honor on the Cummings School website.

Twenty Tufts undergraduate students, all of whom are passionate about engaging in civic life and addressing problems in the communities, were named Tisch Scholars for the upcoming academic year. 

Zviad Adzinbaia, doctoral fellow at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the CNN article “As democracy in Georgia collapses, Russia, China, and Iran see an opening.”

Katherine Allen, mechanical engineering doctoral student, Mavis Murdock, computer science doctoral student, and Elaine Short, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, authored the position paper “Empowering Disabled Engineers through Accessible Co-Curricular Activities.” Murdock and Allen also presented the paper at the RESPECT 2025 Annual Conference this summer.

Hakan Altinay, professor of the practice, penned an article in the European Cultural Foundation inviting readers to be curious and to make “room for care, camaraderie, community and—dare I say—love.”

Marie-Claire Beaulieu, associate professor of classical studies, authored The Conversation article “The beach wasn’t always a vacation destination—for the ancient Greeks, it was a scary place.”

Sean Cash, associate professor at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, and Wenhui Feng, Tufts Health Plan Professor of Health Care Policy Research and assistant professor, along with two colleagues from other institutions, authored the multiyear analysis “The Healthfulness of Foods Purchased at Dollar Stores: Insights from Household Scanner Data from 2008 to 2020” in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Read more about the study on Tufts Now.

Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School, authored the Foreign Policy articles “What Trump Doesn’t Get About AI Innovation” and “Trump’s AI Action Plan Is at War With Itself.” Chakravorti was interviewed for the DW News segment “How will India react to the latest U.S. tariff threats?”

Michael Cohen, affiliate at The Fletcher School, was featured in the Inkstick Media article “Is War Ever Really Worth It?” Cohen also authored the MSNBC opinion piece “Trump’s losing support fast on what used to be his most winning issues.”

Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School, was quoted in The Guardian article “Starvation in Gaza is destroying communities—and will leave generational scars.” de Waal was also interviewed for the Carnegie Endowment commentary piece titled “Starve, Pray, Die,” the WBUR segment “Famine expert on ‘mass starvation’ in Gaza,” as well as the New Yorker article “How to Prevent More Starvation Deaths in Gaza.” de Waal also commented on the U.S. and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in a recent USA Today article.

Dan Drezner, distinguished professor of international politics at The Fletcher School, was quoted in a Financial Times article titled “The evolution of Marco Rubio.”

Monica Duffy-Toft, professor of international politics and director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School, authored The Straits Times article “Trump is losing the trade war with China.”

James Fisher, Generous Listening and Dialogue Initiative (GLADi) researcher, authored a chapter titled “The Past’s Haunting of the Present: Musical Memorializations of Patrice Lumumba & Thomas Sankara in West African Popular Culture,” in the book Musics, Songs, & Imaginaries of West Africa.

Catherine Freudenreich, professor of biology, and co-authors Matthew Johnson, A20, Tyler Maclay, AG25, and Jenna Whalen, AG20, published their study titled “The DNA replication checkpoint targets the kinetochore to reposition DNA structure-induced replication damage to the nuclear periphery” in the journal Cell Reports. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.

Jonathan Garlick, professor of basic and clinical translational sciences at the School of Dental Medicine, was senior author of “T Cells Enhance Tissue Complexity and Function to StudyFibrosis in 3D Skin-Like Tissue Models” and led the team of researchers on the study. The piece was published in the journal Tissue Engineering: Part C: Methods. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.

Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis (cSPA), joined WBUR’s Morning Edition to explain the battle over the state and local tax, or SALT, deduction and the impact of President Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill. Horowitz also penned an opinion piece in the Boston Globe on the effects that the Trump administration’s policies targeting Massachusetts’ industries have on the economy.

Iris Jaffe, the Elisa Kent Mendelsohn Professor of Molecular Cardiology and director of Tufts Research Enterprise at the School of Medicine, had her research and presentation at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025 featured in a blog post by the American Association for Cancer Research. Jaffe and researchers from Tufts and other institutions, including Tufts Medical Center, authored “Ponatinib, But Not the New Abl-Kinase Inhibitor Asciminib, Activates Platelets, Leukocytes, and Endothelial Cell TNF Signaling to Induce Atherosclerotic Plaque Inflammation, Myocardial Infarction, and Stroke” in the journal Circulation.

Maulik Jagnani, assistant professor of environmental economics at The Fletcher School, co-authored the VoxDev article “Breadwinner’s burden: How financial relief improved sleep and cognition in Indonesia.”

Ian Johnstone, professor of international law, and Joshua Lincoln, affiliate, both at The Fletcher School, wrote an analysis on the ongoing negotiations for a global plastics treaty. 

David Kaplan, Stern Family Professor of Engineering, Xinxin Li, postdoctoral scholar, and Yushu Wang, postdoctoral scholar, alongside colleagues from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, authored “Biodegradable and electroactive cryogel microspheres for neurovascularized bone regeneration” in the journal Matter.

Barbara Kates-Garnick, professor of the practice at The Fletcher School, is featured in a segment explaining how utility pricing works as a part of Marketplace’s “I’ve Always Wondered” series and was quoted in the New York Times article “Suddenly, the Trump Administration Tightens the Vise on Wind Farms.”

Michael Klein, professor at The Fletcher School, had one of his EconoFact pieces featured throughout the PolitiFact article “Has the dollar had its biggest decline in 50 years under Donald Trump?” Klein was also quoted in the NPR article “Trump keeps pressuring the Fed to cut rates. Here’s why its independence matters” and wrote the MarketWatch opinion piece “Are Trump’s tariffs helping or hurting America’s economy? 6 key facts about U.S. trade.”

Gabriela Lagreca, associate professor at the School of Dental Medicine, was featured in the WGBH segment “Stress levels are leading to an increase in broken teeth, Mass. dentists report.”

Susan Landau, professor in cybersecurity and policy, joined the From the Crows’ Nest podcast to discuss Salt Typhoon, the evolving role of encryption, and why it’s time to rethink U.S. cybersecurity strategy.

Fen Levy, Ph.D. candidate, and Michael Reed, professor of biology, alongside colleagues from other institutions, authored “Increased bird abundances over 30 years in an extensive commercial forest landscape” in the journal Biological Conservation. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.

Kiame Mahaniah, clinical assistant professor of family medicine at the School of Medicine, was profiled by the Boston Globe and Tufts Now regarding the recent appointment by Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey to serve as the next Secretary of Massachusetts Health and Human Services.

Melissa McCracken, assistant professor of international environmental policy at The Fletcher School, co-authored a Think Global Health piece outlining the consequences of India’s suspension of participation in the Indus Waters Treaty.

Alberto Medina, senior communications specialist at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), is quoted throughout an NPR piece examining the divisive issue of lowering the voting age.

Chris Miller, professor at The Fletcher School, was interviewed for the CNBC Squawk Box segment titled “U.S. firms remain ‘meaningfully ahead’ of Chinese competitors on AI chips, says ‘Chip War’ author” and the NPR Here & Now segment “How Nvidia became a $4 trillion company.” Miller was also quoted in the Politico articles “Did Big Tech just outfox the China hawks?” and “Some questions about that global AI race,” was featured on The Economist’s podcast Money Talks in the episode titled “Chip lords: the world’s most important company,” and wrote the AEI report “How Does Semiconductor Trade Work?” and the Financial Times article “China has its own concerns about Nvidia H20 chips.”

Dariush Mozaffarian, Food is Medicine at Tufts director, distinguished professor, and dean emeritus of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was quoted in an NBC News article about how cane sugar does not have a better health impact than high-fructose corn syrup, noting that the two sweeteners “have identical metabolic effects.” Mozaffarian also shared research findings that show the benefits of consuming dairy, including whole-fat products, for an ABC News article and explained why avocados are beneficial for cardiac health in a Real Simple article.

Brian Schaffner, Newhouse Professor of Civic Studies, and Caroline Soler, A25, in Good Authority, discussed their research, using Cooperative Election Study data from the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections, on the impact of conservative Hispanics who are no longer identifying as Hispanic.

Jennifer Stephan, dean of academic advising and undergraduate studies at the School of Engineering, joined national experts in a Chronicle of Higher Education webinar to discuss how advisors can adapt and support students in a time of shifting needs. Read more about the panel’s presentation on the School of Engineering website.

Robert Viesca, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Federico Ciardo, former postdoctoral scholar, published their work “Nonlinear stability analysis of slip in a single degree of freedom elastic system with frictional evolution laws spanning ageing to slip” in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. Read more about the findings on the School of Engineering website.

Josephine Wolff, professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School, was quoted in the Good Housekeeping article “Parents Are Being Crushed by School-App Notifications” and reflected on the joys of wandering around Japanese notebook stores while in Tokyo for the Workshop on the Economics of Information Security at the University of Tokyo in the Financial Times article “Postcard from Tokyo: a notebook obsessive in retail heaven.”

Mathew Jie Sheng Yeo, doctoral student at The Fletcher School, authored The Diplomat article “Can the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Bring China and the U.S. Together?”

Researchers from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, the Department of Chemistry, and colleagues from the University of Pavia authored new research titled “Fluorinated Hydrophobic Silk as Platelet Compatible Coatings for Platelet Conservation and Storage Applications,” published in Advanced Functional Materials.

Tufts University was featured in the Living Allergic article “4 Colleges That Cook Fresh, Allergy-Friendly Food ‘From the Heart.’”