Faculty

Research/Areas of Interest: International Relations, Security Studies, International Relations Theories

Research/Areas of Interest: Matrix completion, compressive sensing, distance geometry

Research/Areas of Interest: Spatial Cognition, Language, Memory

Research/Areas of Interest: The response of societies and their governments to cross-border health threats; social theory and the development of sociological approaches to political problems: eg. the 'new institutionalism' in sociology and political science; the impact of cultural frameworks and social institutions on population health; the comparative historical study of epidemics; the generation and international transfer of scientific knowledge; risk regulation in the face of scientific uncertainty and globalization.

Research/Areas of Interest: To each point on a curve, one can often associate in a natural way a line or plane (or higher dimensional linear variety) that moves with the point in the curve. This set of linear spaces is called a vector bundle. Vector bundles appear in a variety of questions in Physics (like the computation of Gromov-Witten invariants) . Moreover, they provide new insights into old mathematical problems and have been used to give beautiful proofs to long standing conjectures as well as striking counterexamples to some others.

Research/Areas of Interest: Latin American Studies, with an emphasis on the Andean Region Critical theory applied to medicine, psychology and anthropology Gender studies Domestic, structural and political violence Human rights and international humanitarian law Truth commissions, transitional justice and reconciliation The politics of post-war reparations Comparative peace processes Disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programs for ex-combatants US counter-narcotics policy

Research/Areas of Interest: Memory and Aging

Research/Areas of Interest: American Literatures in English; African, African-American & African Diaspora Studies; Colonial & Post-Colonial Discourse/ Race & Empire/ Black Radical Traditions; Cultural Studies; Body Politics / Gender & Sexuality Studies; Philosophy and Critical Theory

Research/Areas of Interest: Organic Materials Chemistry Our group applies the philosophy of physical organic chemistry to organic materials, in the forms of polymers, crystals and surfaces. Specifically, we investigate new materials that show macroscopic changes in properties upon exposure to external stimuli. Our main focus has been new materials that respond to light, which has a unique combination of characteristics: i) easy control over where light goes and when it goes there (spatiotemporal control), ii) easy control over intensity and energy, and iii) the ability to pass through many solid materials that traditional chemical reagents cannot. Our research has focused in three separate areas. 1. Photochemical control of charge. As interactions between charges dictate much of molecular behavior, controlling charge can yield control over matter. We have developed a series of materials in which light switches the charge-based interactions between polymer chains from attractive. By combining this top-down fabrication approach of with the bottom-up fabrication method of layer-by-layer assembly, we have developed thin films in which photochemical lability is confined to individual nanoscale compartments, yielding photo-delaminated free-standing films and multi-height photolithography. 2. Using functional side chains to control conjugated materials. Conjugated materials hold great promise for applications including solar cells and displays. We have focused on expanding the role of the side-chains of these materials, which occupy up to half of their mass but are typically reserved only for solubility. Early work in our group focused on integrating photolabile side chains for negative conjugated photoresists. This has evolved to using the non-covalent interactions of aromatic side-chains for controlling interactions between molecules, and therefore their material properties, including the use of mechanical force to control luminescence—mechanofluorochromism. 3. Singlet-oxygen responsive materials. Singlet oxygen (1O2) is a critical reactive oxygen species in photodynamic therapy for cancer as well as in damage to plants upon overexposure to light. Its photochemical production is also chemically amplified through a photochemical reaction, which is the lynchpin of several commercial bioanalytical technologies. Through a combination of fundamental physical organic chemistry and materials chemistry, we have luminescent conjugated polymer nanoparticles as probes for 1O2 in water that shows improved limit of detection over the commercially available luminescent probe for 1O2.

Research/Areas of Interest: Performing Physical Comedy - Clown Acting Shakespeare Directing Theatre Careers in Theatre Actor's Mask Work Tai Chi & Qi Gong Tao Te Ching

Research/Areas of Interest: Occupational therapy, social psychology, culture and health care stigma, health quality of life, social participation, Parkinson's disease and conditions across lifespan that affect nonverbal and verbal communication, evidence-based practice. I study health quality of life and define it as participation in daily life tasks, activities, and roles in a manner that contributes to individual, familial, societal, and global health and well-being. A bio-psycho-social approach is taken with respect to processes and outcomes of health quality of life. I work with researchers and students from different disciplines and countries to conduct research in a creative and collaborative interdisciplinary environment.

Research/Areas of Interest: I am a developmental scientist and Research Associate Professor at Tufts University in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. With the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development (IARYD), I study positive youth development (PYD), seeking to understand what goes "right" in the lives of youth, by engaging in researcher-practitioner partnerships with youth-serving organizations around the world (currently Rwanda, Uganda, South Africa, and El Salvador). My research is broadly focused on character development--I am interested in how people become good people. With a focus on person-context relations across development, I also explore how good people shape, and are shaped by, good communities and cultures. Specifically, my work has focused on the potential role of forgiveness as a character strength and civic virtue. This interest has steered me toward working with individuals and organizations interested in peacebuilding and restorative justice, for instance, in Rwanda as well as the Boston area. Lessons learned from this work are timely and important for civil society and human flourishing, perhaps especially in an era of increasingly polarized social and political climates. Forgiveness, restorative justice, and peacebuilding seem to be linked by common threads of empathy, curiosity, generosity, listening, and dialogue, as well as critical thinking, personal responsibility, community action, and civic engagement. Please find my CV in LinkedIn for more information on my professional experiences, research grants, editorial and consulting activities, teaching experience, and publications.

Research/Areas of Interest: Experimental condensed matter physics; physics education My primary physics research is in experimental surface science. In my lab at 574 Boston Ave., my students and I study what happens when foreign atoms and molecules form chemical bonds with metal surfaces. We examine how the interaction between the foreign molecule and the metal modify properties of both of them. In recent years a particular focus has been on how the attachment of the foreign molecule changes the electrical resistivity of the metal substrate. This area of research has relevance to a range of potential applications including catalysis, chemical sensing, and the growth of thin films and nanoparticles on surfaces. A second area of activity is physics education, particularly at the elementary school level. Together with collaborators at a local nonprofit organization and at other universities, I am working to develop and study curriculum materials and professional development strategies for teachers to improve instruction in science in grades 3-5.

Research/Areas of Interest: Control of locomotion and the neural processes that organize sensory and motor information

Research/Areas of Interest: Algebraic geometry, topology, and differential geometry

Research/Areas of Interest: Microeconomics

Research/Areas of Interest: film theory, philosophy and aesthetics of film, avant-garde film, film and modernism

Research/Areas of Interest: Biomechanics and Neural Control of Locomotion

Research/Areas of Interest: Industrial and Urban U.S., Immigration

Research/Areas of Interest: Moral Philosophy, Political Philosophy

Research/Areas of Interest: Population genetics, evolution, ecology, computational biology

Research/Areas of Interest: Emotion and Emotion Regulation

Research/Areas of Interest: Physical and Surface Chemistry. The Utz group studies how molecules react on surfaces. Reactions at the gas-surface interface are highly dynamical events. Large-scale atomic and vibrational motions transform reactants into products on sub-ps and Å scales. The experiments probe ultrafast nuclear motion and energy flow dynamics that underlie heterogeneous catalysis and chemical vapor deposition. The goal is to to better model existing processes and direct the rational design of new catalytic materials and deposition techniques. The experiments use vibrational- and rotational-state selective laser excitation of molecules in a supersonic molecular beam to provide precise control over the energetics and orientation of the gas-phase reagent as it approaches the surface. Reaction probability and product identity is then quantified as a function of the reagent's energetic configuration. These experiments have shown that the vibrational state of the incident molecule can have a profound effect on reaction probability, and suggest that energy redisribution within the reaction complex is not complete prior to reaction and that the competing kinetics of energy redistribution and reaction might be manipulated to control the outcome of a reaction. This has been subsequently confirmed by exerting bond-elective control over a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction.

Research/Areas of Interest: Literature (fiction, drama, nonfiction) on the American Queer and BIPOC experience. Active inclusion. Latine theater and performance.

Research/Areas of Interest: Interaction of light with matter, physics of nanostructures and interfaces, metamaterials, material science, plasmonics, and surfactants, semiconductor photonics and electronics, epitaxial crystal growth, materials and devices for energy and infrared applications.

Research/Areas of Interest: Psychopathology Research Methods

Research/Areas of Interest: Petrology and Mineralogy

Research/Areas of Interest: Tectonics and Structural Geology