Kudos February 2026
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.
Bernard Arulanandam, vice provost for research and professor of immunology at the School of Medicine, has been named a foreign fellow of the Indian National Science Academy.
Hannah Biccard, A26, forward on the field hockey team was selected as the National Field Hockey Coaches Association Division III National Player of the Year. Biccard is Tufts’ first National Player of the Year.
Lisa Butner, detective captain of the Tufts Police Department, was awarded the Ralph Avery Leadership Award by the Massachusetts Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. This award is given to a campus law enforcement and public safety leader who best identifies emerging leaders and embraces the ideals of leadership development and mentorship to further their profession. Butner was honored at Framingham State University for her dedication to community values and her unwavering commitment to supporting and mentoring her peers.
Gregory Crane, professor, Winnick Family Chair in Technology and Entrepreneurship, and chair of the Department of Classical Studies, led one of the 23 teams that received a monetary award from Schmidt Sciences to develop and apply artificial intelligence to archaeology, history, literature, and other humanities disciplines, seeking to unlock new understandings of human history and culture. Crane’s project is titled “Beyond Translation: Opening up the Human Record.” Crane and his team will use generative AI for multidimensional language translation—mapping the influence of texts, their translations, and resultant commentary and scholarship across millennia in a range of languages, building on the Perseus Digital Repository for the study of Ancient Greek.
Raphael Da Silva Gomes, D29, Franceska Ademi, D29, and Shiva Nayerain Jazi, D29, students at the School of Dental Medicine, received the Dr. Amit Sachdeo Award for Community Service and Outreach in Dentistry. The award honors students whose work reflects an exceptional commitment to service, equity, compassion, and leadership in advancing oral health for underserved communities. The recipients were selected based on deeply moving impact statements that demonstrated a clear philosophy of service and a shared belief that dentistry extends far beyond the walls of the clinic.
Amy De’Ath, assistant professor of English, had her book of poetry, Not a Force of Nature, selected as one of Artforum’s best books of 2025, with author Sianne Ngai writing that it “reminds us why poetry has long seemed uniquely suited for exploring modes of what [Daniel] Tiffany calls ‘negative sociability,’ including the kinds specific to contemporary no-growth capitalism.”
Rich DeCapua, senior associate dean of students and deputy chief of student life officer for the School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering, has been named a National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Pillar of the Profession for the Class of 2026, one of the highest honors in student life/student affairs. NASPA is the leading professional association for student affairs, representing more than 15,000 members. Each year, the NASPA Foundation selects a small group of leaders whose scholarship, mentorship, service, and sheer commitment to students has shaped the profession in lasting ways.
Lisa Freeman, A86, V91, NG96, professor of small animal clinical sciences at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, received the 2025 Canine Health Discovery of the Year Award from the AKC Canine Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of all dogs through research and discovery. Freeman was recognized for her pioneering research into diet-associated dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Her work has uncovered a promising biological mechanism that may explain why dogs are developing this devastating disease—offering the potential to fundamentally shift our understanding of diet-associated DCM and accelerate the path to prevention and treatment.
Ken Getz, executive director of the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development and research professor at the School of Medicine, had his article, “The Hard Truth About Rare Disease and Gene Therapy Drug Development,” recognized as one of the five most-read articles in Applied Clinical Trials. The article outlines clinical and commercial challenges, including longer and more complex trials, limited patient populations, ethical issues with control groups, and high manufacturing costs—particularly for gene therapies.
Juan Gnecco, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, is the first winner of the Engineering Engagement Award from the Tufts Engineering Faculty Research Awards Committee. The award will support the upcoming 2026 Engineering for Women’s Health Symposium, which will be hosted at Tufts this spring. The symposium will bring together researchers from academia, medicine, biotechnology, and industry to catalyze interdisciplinary ideas at the intersection of women’s health and engineering.
Margaret Infeld, assistant professor at the School of Medicine, was recognized as a 2025 Global CardioVascular Clinical Trialists Forum Research Scholar.
Gayathri Kondakath, a doctoral student in the Neuromechanics and Biomimetic Devices Lab, received the Royal Society Biology Letters Best Paper Prize for her paper describing the sphinx state in manduca. She received this award as an Early Career Researcher, and the paper also includes two undergraduate authors, Izzy Messengger and Annushka Veliko-Shapko, who were mentored by Kondakath.
Bricker Like and Ryan O’Hara, both doctoral students in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, are the first-ever recipients of the Nakho Sung Graduate Student Travel Award. Created in honor of longtime Tufts professor and respected materials science researcher Nakho Sung, the award supports Ph.D. students’ professional development through travel and conference attendance.
Andrew McClellan, professor of art history, was named the Robert Sterling Clark Visiting Professor of Art History at Williams College for 2026–27 in affiliation with the Clark Art Institute. The Clark Professorship is the oldest of its kind in art history in the country.
Doug Matson, professor of mechanical engineering, was honored with the American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Founder Award—the highest honor given by the society. He was recognized for his outstanding contributions to and leadership within the field of gravitational and space science.
Daniel Maxwell, the Henry J. Leir Professor in Food Security at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, was selected for the 2026 class of The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Program. For 60 years, the program has brought global leaders together to collaborate and create solutions that change the world.
Karen Panetta, distinguished professor and dean of graduate education at the School of Engineering, was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Mildred Dresselhaus Medal. She was selected for the prestigious award in recognition of her contributions to computer vision and simulation algorithms and her leadership in developing programs to promote STEM careers. In addition, Panetta moderated a panel at CES 2026 entitled “AI or Human? Trust, Transparency, and Co-Creation in the Age of Intelligent Content.” The panel at this technology conference brought together top voices in AI research and industry to explore how to preserve authenticity, transparency, and accountability as synthetic media and generative tools expand.
James Schwob, professor at the School of Medicine, was named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors—the highest professional distinction awarded exclusively to inventors. This prestigious honor recognizes Schwob’s decades of impactful research in neural development and neuroregeneration, as well as his translational work advancing therapies for age-related olfactory loss. A leader in innovation and discovery, Schwob exemplifies Tufts’ commitment to turning scientific insight into real-world impact. Read more about this recognition on Tufts Now.
Saskia Solotko, A26, has become the first Tufts student to receive a Churchill Scholarship. The scholarship, which recognizes her academic and research achievement in mathematics, is for one year of master’s study at Churchill College, Cambridge. Read more on Tufts Now.
Chris Swan, professor at the School of Engineering, was elected to the Engineers Without Borders-USA Faculty Leadership Council. Through this role, Swan will expand his investment in student growth and engagement on a broader national scale.
Jason Wright, chair and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, was appointed the Louis E. Phaneuf Teaching and Research Chair in Gynecology, recognizing his exceptional contributions to education, research, and patient care. Established in 1959 in memory of Louis Eusebe Phaneuf, M1913, this professorship recognizes excellence in gynecology.
Zakaria Tourabi, A29 (BA/BFA), is the 2026 Tufts MLK Student Voices Award winner. Tourabi created art inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and received his award as part of the university’s annual celebration in January in honor of Dr. King.
Laurie Baise, professor and chair of civil and environmental engineering, Maggie Roberts, doctoral student, and Shiying Nie, postdoctoral scholar, all at the School of Engineering, along with researchers from other institutions, co-authored a new study titled “Geospatial Site Amplification Model for California” in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Joronia Chery, M24, Lisa Gualtieri, adjunct associate professor of public health and community medicine at the School of Medicine, Grace Sheng, doctoral student at the School of Medicine, and Sebastian Ramos, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the School of Medicine, along with researchers from other institutions authored research titled “Exploring medication adherence in racial/ethnic minorities” in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.
David O.H. Cutler, A26, alongside a Rutgers faculty member, authored a paper that solves a longstanding math challenge that asks for the maximum number of pieces a circular object can be divided into with a given number of straight cuts.
Frank David, professor of the practice in the biology department, was an author on the paper “Forecasting clinical trial success using anonymized external expert panels” published in Drug Discovery Today.
Fahad Dogar, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and at Tisch College of Civic Life, oversaw a project to develop an AI tool that helps to better comprehend how autistic individuals communicate and perceive the world through language. Dogar worked alongside other researchers at Tufts on this new tool. The resulting paper received the Best Student Paper Award at the International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. Read more about this research on Tufts Now.
Rebecca Jackson, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences, authored the paper “Velocity Observations in an Upwelling Subglacial Discharge Plume Reveal Links Between Entrainment and Ice Morphology” published in JGR Oceans. It was featured as a Research Spotlight in EOS, a science news magazine published by the American Geophysical Union.
Karen Jacobsen, the Henry J. Leir Professor of Global Migration at The Fletcher School, authored a new book, Host Cities, which explores how urban areas respond to large arrivals of displaced people.
Jonathan Lamontagne, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Jacob Wessel, EG25, authored “Regional coordination can alleviate the cost burden of a low-carbon electricity system” in Nature Communications. Read more about the research on the School of Engineering’s website. Additionally, Lamontagne was an author on the paper “Designing robust energy policy packages under deep uncertainty: A multi-metric decision support framework” published in Energy Policy.
Jennie Jieun Lee, professor of the practice in ceramics at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University has an exhibit on display through May 25 at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. This exhibition is her solo museum debut and features new and recent works centered on invention and ceremony.
William Masters, professor, and Elena Martinez, adjunct lecturer, both at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, along with other researchers, authored “Environmental impacts and monetary costs of healthy diets worldwide” in Nature Food. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Sergei Mirkin, professor and White Family Chair in Biology, and biologists in Professor Shamil Sunyaev’s lab at Harvard Medical School authored a paper entitled “Inherent instability of simple DNA repeats shapes an evolutionarily stable distribution of repeat lengths” in Nature Communications. It demonstrates that the length distribution of simple tandem repeats in mammalian genomes, including the abundance of long repeats, is evolutionary conserved. Long repeats emerge in a dynamic balance between expansion, contraction and interruption processes accounting for their abundance. This data effectively explains the appearance of the so-called long-normal repeat alleles that can trigger genetic diseases in humans.
Ethan Murrow, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University has a solo show, Rescue Vehicles | Véhicules de secours, on display at Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris, France.
Nik Nair, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, and colleagues from Tufts and other institutions published their study “Reversal of the Leloir pathway to promote galactose and tagatose synthesis from glucose” in Cell Reports Physical Science. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.
Markus Nemitz, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, and Yijia Wu, doctoral student at the School of Engineering, contributed to a study titled “Roadmap on Artificial Intelligence-Augmented Additive Manufacturing” published in the journal Advanced Intelligent Systems.
Furkan Sarikaya, EG25, doctoral student, Shaohua Lu, EG25, master’s student, Johes Bater, assistant professor, and Mark Hempstead, professor, all at the School of Engineering, developed a Conclusion Based Utility Evaluation (CBUE), which uses AI to analyze the accuracy of conclusions from privacy-enhanced data. Their research, titled “CBUE: Conclusion Based Utility Evaluation for Differentially Private Categorical Data,” was selected for publication at the 2026 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Symposium on Security and Privacy and could be applied to various datasets to advance data protection and usability that could inform policies and identify issues in learning environments. Read more about the tool on the School of Engineering’s website.
Sameer Sonkusale, professor of electrical and computer engineering, was the corresponding author of research entitled “Restacked 2D nanosheet clay membranes as eco-friendly cation exchange membrane for microbial fuel cells for energy and high-throughput screening” published in the journal Biomass and Bioenergy. Several researchers from the School of Engineering worked with Sonkusale on the research and paper.
Dan Votipka, Lin Family Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering, is part of a team developing software that could improve cybersecurity threat response time in hospitals. Read more about this project on the School of Engineering’s website.
Allen Wang, A26 (BFA), had a solo show, Held in Silt, on display at a gallery in Medford.
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine’s Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic at Worcester Technical High School was highlighted in a Wall Street Journal article focused on vocational technical education in Massachusetts.
Researchers at the School of Engineering have created a sugar alternative that delivers the same sweetness as table sugar with 60% fewer calories. Read more about this sugar alternative on Tufts Now.
Researchers at the School of Medicine and collaborators from Mass General Brigham are offering new hope for osteoarthritis patients. They have developed “smart” nanoparticles that specifically target damaged cartilage and adapt to the disease’s severity. Read more about the research on the School of Medicine’s website.
Tufts University has received a $2.1 million grant to create an innovation hub for lab-grown foods. The new center will open on the Medford/Somerville campus in 2026.
Tufts University and Tufts Medicine health system are launching a joint research enterprise, the Tufts University–Tufts Medicine (TU-TM) Research Enterprise, that further integrates the academic prowess of Tufts University with the clinical and research expertise of Tufts Medicine to drive discovery, accelerate innovation, and leverage their collective strengths to advance human health.