Kudos March 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. 

Helen Boucher, dean at the School of Medicine and chief academic officer of Tufts Medicine, was named a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.     

Madeleine Dunn, A26, was named Swimmer of the Year at the 2026 NESCAC Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships after winning the 500, 1,000, and 1,650 freestyle events. Dunn is Tufts’ first Swimmer of the Year in the 24-year history of the award.

Sarah Hulsey, part-time lecturer at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, was selected for the short list of nominated artists representing Massachusetts in Women to Watch 2027.

Natalie Jeong, professor of periodontology, was named one of the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Council of Deans 2026–27 Fellows. The ADEA Council of Deans Fellowship program seeks to create a pathway for future leaders who will develop the skills and experience during the program for success in a role as a dean or another type of higher-level university administrator.    

William Masters, professor at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, is the recipient of the Royal Swedish Academy of Forestry and Agriculture 2026 Georg and Greta Borgström Prize for Global Food Security. The award, which includes a prize of SEK 100,000, honors exceptional contributions to global food security and to the ecological, demographic, and economic challenges that shape it. Read more about the award on Tufts Now.    

Joan Mecsas, Bree Aldridge, and Ralph Isberg, all professors of microbiology at the School of Medicine, received a highly competitive international grant through the Gates Foundation’s Global Grand Challenges program.   

Jason Rife, professor and chair of the department of mechanical engineering, was elected as a fellow of the Institute of Navigation.    

Christina Roberts, A26, Nancy Yang, A26, and Sruthi Manivannan, graduate student in the School of Engineering, are among the finalists for the SharkNinja Innovation Challenge, a nationwide competition for university student innovators to develop and submit their innovations for the chance to win funding, patent and IP support, and mentorship. The students are the inventors of Matcha Luxe, an at-home matcha machine.    

Robert Sege, professor at the School of Medicine, was reappointed to the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Children’s Trust, a distinguished gubernatorial appointment. The Massachusetts Children’s Trust is dedicated to the prevention of child abuse and neglect by addressing the root causes of maltreatment through strong, coordinated systems responses.    

Dimitris Skiadas, visiting professor and Constantine G. Karamanlis Chair in Hellenic and European Studies at The Fletcher School, won the Outstanding Academic Distinction Award from the University of Macedonia in Greece.  

Jeffrey Berry, professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science, James Glaser, dean emeritus of the School of Arts and Sciences, and Deborah Schildkraut, John Richard Skuse, Class of 1941, Professor of Political Science, authored a new book, Everyday Democracy: Liberals, Conservatives, and Their Routine Political Lives, which highlights the practice of democracy in our daily lives. Read more about the book on Tufts Now.    

Nicholas Covaleski, assistant director at the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, authored a new book, Frontiers in American Religion: Myth, Technology, and the Making of a Pioneering People. This exciting and thought-provoking work examines how myth, religion, and technological innovation shaped American frontier identity and culture.    

Junior Diaz, A29 (BFA), had his drawing portrait collection, Running with Aim, on display at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University last month.   

Kelly Sims Gallagher, dean at The Fletcher School, will headline the WorldBoston “Great Decisions” program about international cooperation on climate change, which will take place at The Fletcher School in March.   

Brian Hatcher, Packard Professor of Theology, will give a lecture on March 5 about Bengali art and culture at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in conjunction with the museum’s new exhibition, Divine Color: Hindu Prints from Modern Bengal. Hatcher’s talk, entitled Religion in Bengal: Mythic and Material Expressions, will explore the religious world of premodern Bengal, which bears the hallmarks of successive eras of Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim rule, while also speaking to the ongoing merger of narratives, practices, and visual styles.    

Kasturi Lele, Ph.D. student at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Benjamin Wolfe, associate professor and associate department chair of biology, and Lawrence Uricchio, Youniss Assistant Professor of Innovation, published their paper “Pairwise interactions and serial bottlenecks help explain species composition in a multispecies microbial community” in the journal Ecology. Read more about the research on Tufts Now.     

Melinda Macht-Greenberg, lecturer at the School of Medicine and the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, along with colleagues at Tufts Medical Center, developed a training rotation that brings fellows from the child and adolescent psychiatry program directly to the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development—enabling fellows to practice their skills one-on-one with preschoolers. Read more about the program on Tufts Now.    

Laurel McLaughlin, curator and director of collective futures fund at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, will lead the conversation and workshop Painting in a Time of Crisis as part of the Bergman & Salinas residence at MassArt on March 11.    

Ng’endo Mukii, professor of the practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, will present a collection of short animated films spanning a decade of work at the Women Take The Reel Film Festival on March 26 at Barnum Hall.     

Thomas Vandervelde, professor and chair of electrical and computer engineering, along with Kareena Guness, Pan Menasuta, Zachary Kranefeld, and Basil Vanderbie, all Ph.D. students in the School of Engineering and members of the Tufts Renewable Energy and Applied Photonics Lab, published their research titled “Streamlined fabrication process of Si nanopillars for metasurface applications” in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B. Read more about this research on the School of Engineering’s website.    

Li Zeng, associate professor of immunology at the School of Medicine, along with colleagues at the School of Medicine and collaborators at other institutions, authored research titled “A disease-severity-responsive nanoparticle enables potent ghrelin messenger RNA therapy in osteoarthritis” in Nature Nanotechnology. Read more about the research on the School of Medicine’s website.    

Researchers at the School of Medicine authored a study on family dinners and how they may prevent substance use. Read more about this study on Tufts Now.