Faculty Highlights - Academic Year 2024-2025

Assistant Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences Rebecca Jackson received a National Science Foundation grant to develop a new application of fiber-optic cables to observe the ocean in front of glaciers. The first paper from this project was published in the journal Nature.

Assistant Professor of Chemistry Ira Caspari-Gnann was awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to support her project entitled "The Impact of Power on Active Learning in Learning Assistant-supported General and Organic Chemistry Lectures." This grant will set her up for a lifelong career in studying the intersection between social and disciplinary aspects of teaching and learning chemistry, and STEM more broadly, seeking avenues towards deep, complex, and holistic education that engages all students. It will continue her work using deep qualitative methods to bridge themes and levels of educational research and allow her to add power to the complexity of factors she studies.
 

Associate Professor of English Nathan Wolff is presenting at a discussion of a new printing of Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket: and Collected Writings at the Harvard Book Store. Published the year full emancipation was legalized by the UK's Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, Arthur Gordon Pym captures the relentless anxiety and violence of pre-Civil War American expansion.

Professor of the Practice of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Maurice Emmanuel Parent is the Producing Artistic Director of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a black theatre company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theatre. The Front Porch Arts Collective play Next to Normal recently won an Outstanding Musical Award from the Boston Theater Critics’ Association as well as awards for Outstanding Lead Performer in a Musical and Outstanding Featured Performer in a Musical. With support from the Tufts Faculty Research Award, Parent also collaborated with several Tufts students in productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Her Portmanteau, and Hello, Dolly!, all of which received critical acclaim.

Assistant Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development Fernando Salinas-Quiroz has received the Foundation for Child Development Young Scholars Award, which supports early-career scholars whose research aims to inform and to advance policy and practice to ensure that all young children – including those marginalized by racism, xenophobia, or economic inequality – can thrive. Professor Salinas-Quiroz was also asked to participate as a senior leader for the Society for Research in Child Development's “Chat with Leaders” event this May. In addition, they were elected as a commissioner for the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth and a board member for PFLAG National.
 

Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health Alexandra Collins gave the keynote speech at a conference at the Howard Center, a nonprofit helping people and communities thrive by providing supports and services to address mental health, substance use, and developmental needs. Entitled "Rethinking the continuum of care for people who use drugs: exploring the role of overdose prevention centers," Collins's talk focused on the role of harm reduction approaches, including overdose prevention centers, as critical for supporting people who use drugs. 

Professor of the Practice of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Maurice Emmanuel Parent has been named the new artistic director of The Front Porch Arts Collective, a black theatre company committed to advancing racial equity in Boston through theatre. Parent is a co-founder and current co-producing artistic director of The Front Porch Arts Collective and will step into the role of producing artistic director on July 1. A review of 'Hello, Dolly!,' a play Parent recently directed, was reviewed by The Boston Globe. 

Sol Gittleman Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture Malcolm Turvey published a new book entitled Film, Art, and the Limits of Science: In Defence of Humanistic Explanation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Turvey will also be giving a keynote address about the book at a conference on the arts and humanities in Rijeka, Croatia.

John Wade Professor of Chemistry Charles Sykes has been selected to deliver the 2025–26 Bernstein Lectures at UW–Madison. The Bernstein Lectures at UW–Madison honor the legacy of Professor Richard B. Bernstein, a pioneer in physical chemistry. This prestigious lecture series features distinguished physical chemists who have made outstanding contributions to the field.
 

Professor of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies Heather S. Nathans received the Loewenstein-Wiener Fellowship from the American Jewish Archives to support her current research and book project.

Jason P. and Chloe Epstein Professor of Economics Douglas Gollin has been appointed Research Associate to the National Bureau of Economic Research Development Economics Program. The Development Economics Program studies the forces that contribute to economic development, particularly in less developed nations.

Assistant Professor of Economics Matthew Gudgeon has been appointed Faculty Research Fellow to the National Bureau of Economic Research Labor Studies Program. The Labor Studies Program explores issues related to employment and compensation, including the supply of and demand for labor, human capital, and the determinants and consequences of unemployment.
 

Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Hassaan Khan was quoted in multiple news outlets on the factors behind India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan and what the implications are for Pakistan. These news outlets include Dawn News TV, WGBH The World, Al Jazeera, and the BBC. He also wrote a front page op-ed on the suspension of the treaty for the Dawn e-paper.

Tufts was named one of the top 100 U.S. universities granted utility patents —also known as patents for invention— for 2024 by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Utility patents encompass many types of scientific breakthroughs that directly benefit society and human health, with potential for the creation of useful products that better the world. Tufts faculty who were honored by NAI include: William Walker Professor of Mathematics Misha Kilmer, Professor of Physics and Astronomy Timothy Atherton, Robinson Professor of Chemistry Krishna Kumar, Associate Professor of Chemistry Charles Mace, and Professor of Chemistry David Walt.
 

Assistant Professor of Sociology Caleb Scoville has been awarded a prestigious Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. The Andrew Carnegie Fellows aim to help Americans understand how and why our society has become so polarized and what can be done to strengthen social cohesion. Scoville's research will explore how environmentalism became a partisan issue.

Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric, International Literary and Cultural Studies Susan Napier appeared in the new 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.

Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Justin Hollander, A’96, A’25P, was awarded the 2025 William R. and June Dale Prize for Excellence in Urban and Regional Planning, the top prize given to an urban planning scholar in the United States. Hollander received the prize at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

Professor of Physics & Astronomy Timothy Atherton co-wrote a paper entitled “Shape-recovering liquids” that has been 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.

Vannevar Bush Professor Michael Levin was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest scientific society. Levin's research seeks to understand the mechanisms that underlie cell growth and tissue formation, focusing on the role of bioelectricity in the process, with the goal of creating new frontiers of regenerative medicine. Applications include fighting cancer, reversing degenerative diseases, repairing congenital anomalies, and ultimately even regrowing limbs.

Affiliate Professor David  R. Walt was awarded the 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.
 

Robinson Professor of Chemistry Krishna Kumar has been awarded the 2025 Rao Makineni Lectureship of the American Peptide Society in recognition of his pioneering research in peptide science. Kumar's work focuses on developing next-generation peptide hormones with potential applications in treating metabolic syndrome, including weight loss and Type 2 diabetes. His innovative contributions have advanced the understanding of peptide design and functionality, offering new therapeutic strategies for complex metabolic conditions.

William Walker Professor of Mathematics Misha Kilmer was honored with a Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Prize, along with Haim Avron, Lior Horesh, and Elizabeth Newman. The team received the award for their paper entitled “Tensor-tensor algebra for optimal representation and compression of multiway data." The paper was selected for “groundbreaking work in tensor-tensor algebra, advancing data compression, theory, and applications, enabling superior efficiency and broad impact across disciplines, including simulations and data science.”

Professor of History James Rice has been named to the editorial board of Environmental History, the world’s leading scholarly journal in environmental history. Published by the University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History and the Forest History Society, the journal brings together scholars and practitioners to explore the changing relationships between humans and the environment.

 

Assistant Professor of History Muoki Mbunga published an article in the Journal of African History entitled “Who Deserves to Die? The Moral Logic of Mau Mau Killings in Colonial Kenya, 1952-56." The article seeks to explain how Mau Mau combatants, a militant anticolonial movement in Kenya during the 1950s, selected and killed their civilian targets. Mbunga discussed the article in a recent Journal of African History Podcast episode.

Fletcher Professor of Music Joseph H. Auner was named the Schönberg Professor for 2025 by the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. As part of recieving this honorary title, Auner will present a public lecture and short research seminar on the topic: “Schoenberg’s Creative Processes: History, Culture, and Technologies of Thinking.”

Professor of Anthropology Amahl Bishara's book Crossing a Line: Laws, Violence, and Roadblocks to Palestinian Political Expression (Stanford University Press 2022) was awarded an honorable mention from the Association of Middle East Anthropologists.

Professor of Physics & Astronomy Timothy Atherton and his research group published a paper in Nature Computational Science in collaboration with Professor of Mathematics James Adler. Entitled "A programmable environment for shape optimization and shapeshifting problems," the paper puts forward a very general computational framework called Morpho, a complete programming language, to describe and simulate materials that are both highly deformable and involve very complex structure. This research aims to enable researchers in many disciplines to benefit from advanced computational techniques in designing new materials and devices. This research project was funded by a National Science Foundation grant.

Gunnar Myrdal Professor of Economics Elizabeth Setren was awarded President Biden's Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The award was given by the Department of Education for Professor Setren’s research on METCO.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Caleb Scoville was quoted in a number of news outlets on false claims that protections of endangered fish precipitated the California Wildfires. “It plays to a long-standing trope that liberals or people in cities or people in places like California or environmentalists care more about small, uncharismatic species than they care about their fellow Americans,” Scoville said in an NBC News piece. He was also quoted in National Geographic, Defector, Daily Bruin, Bloomberg News, The Sacramento Bee, AFP Fact Check, Bloomberg Law, Inside Climate News, and Raw Story.

On December 4, Professor and Chair of the Department of Music Kwasi Ampene’s book Engaging Modernity: Asante In the Twenty-First Century (Maize Books 2016) was presented to Former President of Ghana John Mahama by the Asante King, His Majesty Otumfuo Osei Tutu II. On December 8, John Mahama was elected Ghana’s new president. A video of the presentation of Ampene's book is available here at the 52-minute mark.

Assistant Professor of Sociology Anjuli Fahlberg was awarded a distinguished scholar award from The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation to support her project entitled “How States of Exception Impact Lived Experiences of Violence in Gang Territories: A Comparison of El Salvador and Honduras.”

Professor and White Family Chair in Biology Sergei M. Mirkin and his team at the Mirkin Lab published two major papers: "Recurrent DNA nicks drive massive expansions of (GAA)n repeats" in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. and "Stabilization of expandable DNA repeats by the replication factor Mcm10 promotes cell viability" in Nature Communications.

Associate Professor of Psychology Nathan Ward co-authored a paper with several collaborators, including 2nd year graduate student in psychology Julie DiCarlo who is the first author. Entitled "Distinct Constructs Underlie Patient-Reported and Performance-Rated Outcomes after Stroke," the paper was published in the journal Annals of Neurology and examines the relationship between patient-reported outcome measures and performance-based measures in stroke survivors with arm motor impairments.

Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology Michael Levin was included in Vox's 2024 Future Perfect 50 list, celebrating thinkers, innovators, and changemakers who are working to make the future a better place. Levin was recognized in the "Expanding the Mind" category for his research understanding intelligence and memory and questioning what kinds of creatures deserve moral concern. Vox writer Oshan Jarow describes the impact of Levin's work saying: "If mind and intelligence are spectrums that will run across all sorts of hybrid beings in the coming years, [Levin's] unconventional work invites us to expand the horizons of our compassion accordingly."

Fernando Salinas-Quiroz, assistant professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study & 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.

Associate Professor of Biology Erik Dopman was awarded a National Science Foundation grant. This funding will allow Dopman and his team to analyze the role of selection, population processes, and genetic architecture for the build up of distinct barriers to gene exchange in the European corn borer moth system. This research aims to contribute to an understanding of speciation as well as to practical applications in agricultural sustainability, environmental health, and educational outreach.

Northwestern University’s Center for Catalysis and Surface Science (CCSS) has awarded the 2024-2025 Vladimir N. Ipatieff Lectureship in Catalysis to John Wade Professor of Chemistry Charles Sykes. The prestigious lectureship was established by CCSS to enhance the educational experience of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers at Northwestern. Sykes is an internationally recognized expert in surface science and catalysis and will bring his unique insights into the field to this new teaching role.

Associate Professor of Music Frank Lehman was named the winner of the Society for Music Theory’s (SMT) Public-Facing Scholarship Award for his interactive article in the New York Times entitled "How To Write Music for Rolling Boulders." The Public-Facing Scholarship Award is given to publications that advance the public’s knowledge and appreciation of music theory.

Professor of the Practice of Biology Frank Samuel David co-authored a paper on drug pricing, pharma innovation, and the Inflation Reduction Act in the JAMA Oncology journal. It was highlighted in the "Cost Curve" newsletter, which is focused on the economics of the pharma industry.

Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science and Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study & Human Development Richard M. Lerner was inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame. 4‑H is a nationwide youth development organization, empowering nearly six million young people with leadership skills. The National 4-H Hall of Fame recognizes and celebrates individuals who have made an extraordinary impact on 4-H and the lives of its youth members.

Assistant Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development Fernando Salinas-Quiroz was spotlighted by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). The field's most prestigious organization, SRCD has over 5,500 members across more than 60 countries. Salinas-Quiroz answered questions about their passions, career trajectory, and work with the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity/Expression (SOGIE) Caucus.

John McCann Assistant Professor of Music Jeremy Eichler received the 2024 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award from the Phi Beta Kappa Society for his book Time’s Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance (Knopf 2023). The Ralph Waldo Emerson Award recognizes "scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.”

A research study published by Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Keren Ladin and Professor in the Clinical and Translational Science Program Daniel Weiner was highlighted by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Entitled "Does a Decision Aid Help Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease Choose Treatment?," the study aims to help clinics and other healthcare institutions in supporting older adults with chronic kidney disease and their care partners to make better-informed decisions about their care.

Associate Professor of Economics Laura Gee was profiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis for her work studying philanthropy and gender differences in the labor market.

Vannevar Bush Professor of Biology Michael Levin has launched a new blog. Entitled “Forms of Life, Forms of Mind,” it weaves Professor Levin’s thoughts on the science and philosophy of embodied minds; the lives that can be; and the more personal, broader complements of his laboratory research on the biophysical mechanisms of embodied intelligence.

Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Justin Hollander, A’96, was interviewed and his research was cited in the national magazine Outside in the article "Can Car-free Living Make You Happier?" The article describes Culdesac, AZ, the first car-free city built from scratch, and references Hollander’s research using biometrics, which demonstrate that the benefits of car-free cities are real and measurable.

Associate Professor of History and Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora Kerri Greenidge's book, The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Norton 2022), was selected as a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize from the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University. The book provides a counternarrative to the mythology surrounding the revered abolitionist Grimke sisters and reclaims the forgotten Black members of their family.

Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning Justin Hollander and Fletcher School Professor Karen Jacobsen were awarded a grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under their Program for Local and Urban Sustainability (PLUS) to continue their ongoing collaboration with Makerere University on urban development/pollution challenges in informal settlements in Kampala, Uganda. Numerous Tufts students have been a part of this work and three graduate students, Elijah Mensah, G24, Kyle Hammond A25, G26, and Sonya Sternlieb, G23, travelled to Uganda last year.

Associate Professor of Political Science Oxana Shevel was elected President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES). The Slavic Studies Association in its various incarnations has been the leading international scholarly organization devoted to the region since 1948.

Assistant Professor of Political Science Meredith Mclain published a peer-reviewed article in Political Research Quarterly. Entitled "The Traceability of Presidential Policymaking in the Face of Congressional Sanctioning," the paper examines an original dataset of executive orders, published memoranda, and unpublished memoranda issued between 1981 and 2020. It demonstrates how presidents can overcome legislative checks by altering the traceability of their unilateral directives.