Last term, Drexel University faculty members were recognized for their scholarly research and prolific academic and professional contributions. This update offers a snapshot of activity courtesy of the Office of the Provost.
Sponsored Research
Josiah Kephart, PhD, assistant professor in the Dana and David Dornsife School of Public Health’s Urban Health Collaborative, received a $3.9 million grant from the Wellcome Trust along with six researchers in Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Kephart will study how young people’s mental health is impacted by extreme heat in cities.
Catherine von Reyn, PhD, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, and colleagues received a five-year, $577,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for the project titled “BIO-AL: Dendritic Democracy in Drosophila Connectomes.”
Vikas Bhandawat, PhD, associate professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems, received a one-year, $458,000 National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders grant for the project titled “The Circuit Logic of Modulation of Locomotion by Odors.”
Feng Liu, PhD, assistant professor of computer science in the College of Computing & Informatics, received a NVIDIA Academic Grant Program award to support his research in autonomous driving AI.
Supported by the NIH and the NSF, researchers from Drexel, in collaboration with the Children’s National Medical Center, created a prototype of an AI assistant to study how it might be used to support doctors in situations where split-second decision-making can mean the difference between life and death. This research, which is ongoing, is led by Aleksandra Sarcevic, PhD, professor of information science in the College of Computing & Informatics, interim associate dean for research development and director of the Interactive Systems for Healthcare Research Lab, and Angela Mastrianni, PhD information science ’24 and postdoctoral fellow at NYU Langone Health.
Brandy-Joe Milliron, PhD, associate professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, was awarded $250,000 from the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of a remotely delivered 12-week culinary medicine intervention augmented with caregiver coaching to support caregivers and children undergoing lymphoma treatment. Additionally, Milliron will collaborate on a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia study funded by MANNA that will enroll 60 pediatric oncology patients and their caregivers to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of a 12-week family-centered food-as-medicine intervention for families of children receiving active cancer treatment.
Lynnette Montgomery, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, has been awarded a Pennsylvania Department of Health Spinal Cord Injury Research Grant for $150,000. Her project is titled “Effect of Downhill Walking on Yield and Vestibulospinal Inputs After SCI.”
Gail Rosen, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Ahmad Najafi, PhD, associate professor of mechanical engineering and mechanics, both of the College of Engineering, were selected as recipients of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) Bridge Grant. The grants, funded by the Every Page Foundation, offer financial support to researchers affected by cuts to federal funding, enabling them to continue making valuable contributions to their fields.
Two College of Medicine faculty members were awarded one-year, $100,000 grants from the W.W. Smith Charitable Foundation. Liang Oscar Qiang, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy, received funding for his project, “Next-Generation Human Brain Organoids Uncover Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targets for Glutamate Dysregulation and Vascular Injury in HIV-Associated Neurodegeneration.” Gabriele Romano, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and physiology, received funding for his project, “Novel Immunotherapeutic Approaches for Melanoma in PLWH.”
Fred Krebs, PhD, associate professor of microbiology and immunology in the College of Medicine, was awarded a one-year, $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition. The project, “Exploring Non-thermal Plasma as a Novel Immunotherapy for Breast Cancer,” will also involve the collaborative contributions of Mauricio Reginato, PhD, professor and chair of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Vandana Miller, MD, professor of microbiology and immunology, also from the College of Medicine.
Mary Gallagher Gordon, PhD, vice president of clinical operations at Drexel Health and clinical professor of nursing in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, has been awarded $60,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for her project titled “Development of a Student-led Clinic.” These funds will support the start-up phase of a student-led clinic at the Community Wellness HUB at Drexel University. The HUB has long served as a bridge between the university and the surrounding West Philadelphia neighborhoods, offering health and wellness programming while fostering meaningful community partnerships.
Researchers from the School of Education, including Jason Silverman, PhD, associate dean for faculty affairs and research and professor, are developing AI tools to enhance teaching and learning of mathematics. Silverman is leading the project through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The team aims to improve how AI tools respond to student work and explore how AI can assist teachers in providing focused feedback that equips students to build their conceptual understanding of math over time.
Linda Kim, PhD, associate professor in the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design, received a Huntington Library Research Grant and became an Edward A. Mayers Fellow at the Huntington Library. Kim researches the papers of Chinese American modern painter Tyrus Wong and his circle of Asian American artists in Southern California for a book titled, “Unassimilable Modernities: Chinese and Japanese American Artists during WWII.”
Major Gifts, Honors & Recognition
Alexander Fridman, PhD, John A. Nyheim Chair Professor and director of the C. & J. Nyheim Plasma Institute in the College of Engineering, was elected to the International Hall of Fame in Plasma Materials Science. This award honors his pioneering contributions to the establishment and advancement of the interdisciplinary field of plasma medicine.
Kapil R. Dandekar, PhD, E. Warren Colehower Endowed Chair Professor and interim dean of the College of Engineering, was named a 2025 National Academy of Inventors (NAI) Fellow. NAI Fellowship is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors. Dandekar was elected for outstanding contributions to wireless systems, including advances in reconfigurable antennas, software-defined radio and the development of biomedical sensing systems.
Jonathan Spanier, PhD, Hess Family Endowed Chair Professor, department head of mechanical engineering and mechanics and professor in the College of Engineering, has been elevated to the grade of Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Senior Member is the highest professional grade of IEEE for which a member may apply, requiring extensive experience and reflecting professional accomplishment and maturity. Only 10% of IEEE’s nearly half a million members have achieved this distinction.
Helena Mentis, PhD, professor and department head of information science in the College of Computing & Informatics, will receive the Lifetime Service Award from the Association of Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction.
Jackie Jahn, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology in the Dornsife School of Public Health’s The Ubuntu Center on Racism, Global Movements, and Population Health Equity, was named an EDULedger Emerging Scholar for 2026. Jahn was selected for demonstrating perseverance, tenacity and having broad impact on academia and beyond.
John Kounios, PhD, professor of psychological and brain sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, received the Rudolf Arnheim Award for outstanding lifetime achievement in the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts from American Psychological Association.
Radhika Aravamudhan, PhD, EdD, professor of audiology in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, was accepted as a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice (NAP) Audiology Academy.
Sandhya Kortagere, PhD, professor and vice dean of research and innovation at the College of Medicine, received the 2026 Scientific Achievement Award in Drug Discovery and Development from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. The award recognizes outstanding investigators who have made significant contributions in drug discovery, translational and/or drug development science.
Eva Thury, PhD, associate professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named to the advisory board of the International Journal of Disney Studies.
After serving as a member of the national ACS Examinations Institute committees for two standardized General Chemistry First Term Exams, Monica Ilies, PhD, teaching professor of chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been asked to chair the General Chemistry Paired Questions Exams committee.
TD Bank Endowed Professor of Finance Michelle Lowry, PhD, from the Bennett S. LeBow College of Business, won the Brattle Group Distinguished Paper Prize for her paper, “Regulatory Fragmentation,” which was published in the Journal of Finance.