Valentine’s Day isn’t just about showing love for your significant other, family, friends, or even yourself! USC Graduate School wants to take this day to show our appreciation for our global fellows, many of whom moved thousands of miles to continue their education at USC. Incoming students from China, India, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico and Chile are eligible for the fellowships that are funded collaboratively by their home countries and USC. These opportunities help to ensure that international PhD candidates have access to everything they need to successfully conduct their research.

We’re excited to introduce some of our global fellows from Taiwan and Chile and to share their groundbreaking research.

Camille (Hsu-Yu) Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Programs in Biomedical & Biological Sciences (PIBBS) at Keck.  She joined PIBBS because of its diverse and collaborative faculty members and the opportunities to explore sciences in different disciplines. Chen’s research focuses on HIV gene therapy, specifically targeting the latency of the infection. Through her research, Chen aims to eliminate HIV latency. Within her program, Chen works closely with experts in HIV and gene therapy research.  Their collaborative efforts has supported her goal to eliminate HIV latency.  The USC Taiwan Global Fellowship is funded in part by the Republic of China (Taiwan) Ministry of Education. The fellowship has provided Chen with the opportunity to stay up to date with the latest research pertaining to HIV.

“The USC Taiwan Global Fellowship has not only supported my study at USC, but it has also provided a travel award to attend conferences to learn about the most advanced findings in the field,” said Chen.

Li-Ping Chen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture program at Dornsife and is also funded in part by the Republic of China (Taiwan) Ministry of Education. The global prestige of USC and the diverse intellectual community encouraged Chen to become a Trojan. Her research examines East Asian, Sinophone and Asian Diaspora literature.  Chen says her dissertation explores the cultural identity and national consciousness of Taiwanese writers in postwar Japan and North America, and how their literary writings responded to nativist models of ethnicity, language and homeland in the age of global capitalism and postcolonial displacement.

Kun-Hao Yu is a Ph.D. candidate and USC Taiwan Global Fellow in the Civil and Environmental Engineering program at Viterbi. Cardinal and gold are familiar colors to Yu. In 2017, Yu graduated from USC with a Master of Science degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering with a concentration on structural engineering. His experiences in the program encouraged him to return as a Ph.D. candidate.

“The experience volunteering in Dr.Qiming Wang’s lab during my M.S. degree at USC had established my strong interests in structural and mechanical engineering field,” said Yu.

Yu’s research focuses on mechanics and additive manufacturing of self-healing polymers. Recently, Yu and his colleagues developed analytical theories to explain their research on self-healing mechanics of dynamic polymers.  Their works have been published in the prestigious Journal of Mechanics and Physics of Solids.

“These theories are the first set of analytical model in the field to mechanically explain the healing performance of the self-healing polymers,” said Yu.

Yu’s career goal is to become university faculty in Taiwan.

Ariel Calderon is a Ph.D. candidate studying Mechanical Engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering. Calderon’s research is focused on robotics. In his soft robotics work, Calderon is designing systems that can mimic muscles in animals. A current project is a soft robot inspired by the way earthworms move. You can check out this video to see Calderon’s work in action. The robot contains artificial muscles that can contract and expand so the “worm” can move. In Calderon’s micro robotic work, he creates tiny robots. It’s is a meticulous process that involves using a laser cutter to cut shapes out of materials like carbon fiber and then manually assembling the shapes under a microscope. Recently, Calderon created a robotic bee that can flap its wing and fly. The bee is about the size of a penny.

Calderon is one of USC’s Global Chile Fellows. He chose USC because it has one of the few labs in the world that can fabricate the kind of technology he is working on. “The Autonomous Micro-robotic Systems Labe in the AME Department was a great opportunity to learn and design robots that I’ve been dreaming about since I was a kid,” said Calderon.

Rodrigo Riveros is a Ph.D. candidate in the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC’s Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and another one of USC’s Global Chile Fellows. His research focuses on understanding how adolescents develop life goals. He primarily focuses on Latino and East-Asian teenagers. As part of his research, he conducts interviews and analyzes behavioral and neuroimaging data. Riveros also studies the effects of art-based social emotional intervention on adolescents and adults. Riveros says this work has inspired him to transfer his lab and community research into objective recommendations for social betterment.

Riveros says he chose to pursue a Ph.D. at USC because of the opportunity to work with Dr. Immordino-Yang. “I felt deeply connected with Dr. Immordino-Yang’s scientific approach, conducting research that acknowledges the multiple levels and dynamics of human development with the highest standard of quality and rigor,” said Riveros.

By: Laura Cechanowicz

Looking up into cherry blossom trees.

Spring in Japan is marked by the arrival of the cherry blossoms, an event that begins at a slightly different time from year to year depending on the weather. The cherry blossoms themselves are then remarkably fragile. While it is said they peak for one to two weeks, the truest critic I know claims they only last two to three days. The argument is that once the petals begin to fall and the green leaves peak out, their ephemeral beauty is diminished, quickly but a memory. In many ways, the cherry blossoms are an example of my dissertation research in Japan.

For my dissertation in iMAP in the School of Cinematic Arts Department of Media Arts + Practice, I am researching the experience of disability in several countries, and this year of travel is funded by the USC Research Enhancement Fellowship, and later this summer also the USC ACE-Nikaido Fellowship. I am working with locals with invisible disabilities to understand the challenges they face daily, and we are working together through worldbuilding, a practice I learned and developed in the USC World Building Media Lab with Alex McDowell, to imagine solutions to a few of their greatest difficulties. Our work includes documenting our lives now, and sharing those stories via various media outlets, as well as presenting and fabricating fictional stories to elaborate solutions to our problems and to tell our stories in a unique form. The work is also an investigation into how worldbuilding can be used in identity formation, while depicting the neuroscience of the embodied mind.

Photo of six members of non-profit Passione during Rare Disease Day in Kyoto, explaining the Japanese “helpmark” symbol for passers by in an underground shopping center. “Helpmark” is a visual symbol developed in Japan and distributed by the government to communicate that someone has an invisible disability.

As I am also a person with an invisible disability, in each country, I am working to understand my experience of disability in different spaces and cultures. I seek to, in an embodied manner, and by capturing and creating media in each place, capture a fraction of how my experience in that space and with different people is unique. Working with locals, I am also identifying and narrowing in on iconic objects from each culture, reimagining them in a future world that deals with invisible disabilities head on.

Photo of Laura Cechanowicz at a Sanjūsangen-dō Temple wearing the Japanese “helpmark” tag (photo taken by Yuske Fukada).

As a concrete example of my approach, the cherry blossoms are an archetypical Japanese symbol, repurposed for my work here in a future fiction context. Below is an excerpt from a world where everyone develops an invisible disability at some point in their lives. Society, culture, infrastructure, architecture, and more, are rethought and redesigned so that all citizens have as full of a life as possible.

“I still have dreams about running. It may be my greatest wish to run again.

I wonder, is it cruel to teach a child to run if you know someday soon they will never run again?

We call our philosophy of activity now ‘Sakura,’ but our use of the word is an extension of the traditional idea of cherry blossoms as helping people come to terms with life and death. We think of our varied abilities as having life and death cycles, drawing attention to our fleeting ableness. So we cherish our activity. But we don’t consider only that ability abandons, rather, that as one ability disappears, a new one often evolves. The man who becomes blind develops a strong ear.”

Image Description: Photo of a hundred people under cherry blossom, sakura, trees, in Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan.

Photo of blurred cherry blossom tree in the distance, with a cherry blossom tree whose petals have all fallen in the foreground, brilliantly green.

The school year is coming to a close and academic life has never seemed so hectic! Final exams surely bring a torrent of stressful situations. Not to mention, being a graduate student can be difficult in general. We must balance research and classes with jobs, family responsibilities, and even financial insecurity from time to time (or always. Is it just me?) .

But never fear! These 5 self-care tips, inspired by recommendations from the American Psychological Association, will have you prepared to tackle almost any challenge.

1. Exercise Your Body.

Heart-pumping exercise is a proven stress-buster. But one thing is for sure: running to class because you are five minutes late is not enough. Sustained activity for at least thirty minutes a day is recommended. If you aren’t the athletic type, try something fun like going for a hike or joining a zumba class.

Photo credit: LocalFitness

2. Be mindful.

While getting your body moving is a good thing, sometimes your mind just needs to be still. Mindfulness has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve attention, and promote a general sense of well-being.

3. Find mentors.

Find that person who completed her Ph.D. in three years while working full-time with two kids. Get all of the tips you can get and never let go! Even if you don’t have a superhero faculty member or colleague, there are likely individuals in your department who have been on a journey similar to yours. Seek them out for advice. They will probably be very flattered that you even asked.

4. Rely on your friends.

If you are a graduate student, it is likely that a good chunk of your friends are also graduate students. Talk out your struggles together. It doesn’t matter how you do it: during a study session, over coffee, or in a What’sApp message. Make sure to keep in touch and check-in over the course of the semester.

5. Seek help if you need it.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, reach out for help. Student Counseling Services are available at the USC Engemenn Student Health Center. They offer a stress relief clinic as well as individual therapy, crisis support, and psychiatric therapy. If you are in need of immediate emotional support, call (213)740-7711 to speak with a crisis therapist.

I recently sat down for a conversation with Emmett Harsin Drager, a PhD candidate in American Studies and Ethnicity at USC Dornsife. Emmett’s research focuses on the period of time in the United States during the 1960’s and 1970’s when research universities began performing gender reassignment surgeries. Thousands of people wrote to universities requesting sex change operations. Some were accepted while others were denied. How did doctors decide who qualified for surgery and who didn’t? The answer is, in part, the subject of Emmett’s dissertation. Specifically, they focus on the history of gender identity disorder and the development of official diagnosis and treatment protocols for transsexual patients.

  Emmett Harsin Drager, PhD candidate in American Studies and Ethnicity

Here are the top 6 things I learned about Emmett’s research and the developing field of transgender studies from our conversation.

1. Transgender and transsexuality are not the same.

The term transgender is used to characterize gender identity or gender expression that
doesn’t conform to social expectations based on assigned sex at birth. Transsexuality
refers to the desire or practice of making physical changes to the body, often through
gender reassignment surgery or hormone therapy. Those who identify as transgender
may not identify as transsexual.

2. Christine Jorgensen may be the biggest celebrity you’ve never heard of.

Christine was one of the first well-documented persons in the United States to undergo a sex change operation. In the early 1950’s, Christine travelled to Europe for the new procedure and returned to an abundance of American media attention. Even though this was during the Korean and Cold War, sensationalized news coverage about Christine dominated the news. Emmett explained that Christine’s story, along with many other sensationalized tabloid stories about transexuals, exposed the possibility of gender reassignment and unleashed a new demand for the procedure in the United States.

Christine Jorgensen, 1954

3. Doctors used to be the gatekeepers of sex change operations. Today, insurance
companies play a similar role.

Emmett uses archived correspondences from individuals who were denied gender
reassignment surgeries to determine the criteria that doctors used to make their
decisions. Today, doctors generally no longer make that distinction. Rather, insurance
companies require someone who requests a sex change operation to have an official
diagnosis from a psychologist.

4. Assumptions about trans individuals were rooted in perceptions about race.
Emmet explained that the original diagnosis of transsexuality was believed to be the
result of an unhealthy relationship with a parent. At the same time, racial attitudes about
the black family also led to pervasive pathologization. Emmett used the example of Mrs. G, described as a very masculine black woman. Doctors pinpointed Mrs. G’s close
relationship with her single mom as the reason behind her transsexuality, echoing the
conclusions of the infamous Moynihan report that blamed black mothers for social and
economic stagnation.

USC Professor C. Riley Snorton, one of Emmett’s mentors and an expert in trans
studies, recently published a book that puts racial formation at the forefront of
transgender studies titled Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans.

University of Minnesota Press, 2017.

5. A lot has changed in the medical community surrounding the diagnosis of transsexuality. But a lot hasn’t.
Transsexuality was originally termed Gender Identity Disorder by the medical
community and classified as a mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Although today the term has been changed from
gender identity disorder to gender dysphoria, which serves to destigmatize transsexuality, gender dysphoria is still included in the DSM.

6. There’s more to come at USC!
In the fall of 2018, Emmett will host a plenary on gender and sexuality as part of USC
Annenberg’s Critical Mediations Conference. The conference is scheduled for October
4-5, so be sure to mark your calendars!

“Tender and cruel, the pathos in here animates me and the writing hunts me. And so I gratefully surrender.”  — Lily Hoang

The words above inform the writing of Diana Arterian, a doctoral candidate in Literature and Creative Writing at USC Dornsife and author of the poetry collection Playing Monster :: Seiche. Arterian’s dissertation analyzes the ways in which four contemporary poets grapple with “relayed trauma,” a term that she explains here: Watch Diana explain by downloading the clip.

In recognition of World Poetry Day (March 21), we delve deeper into Arterian’s work.

What is relayed trauma? For Arterian, it is the phenomenon in which somebody receives traumatic information from a secondary source. The recipients of relayed trauma are disturbed, yet at a distance. They experience its effects through an intermediary with whom they are deeply connected (for example, through romantic entanglement, heritage, family, or otherwise). Trauma may be relayed through direct communication, the discovery of documents, or ghosts.

Ghosts, you say?

Actually, yes. One of the works Arterian studies in her dissertation is Zong!, a book of poetry by M. NourbeSe Philip—co-written with a ghost (Setaey Adamu Boateng). According to Arterian, Philip draws upon a particular court document to give readers access to a remarkable and disturbing event. In 1781, the captain of a ship named Zong decided to throw 143 enslaved Atlantic Africans overboard so that the ship’s owners could claim insurance for the loss of ‘goods.’ Drawing on court records of the incident, Philip creates a “collage-like poetic text composed from bits of the original document and the words of ghosts, be it slaver or enslaved.”

“If a member of the Black diaspora learns of this event, what recourse does she have to exorcize her horror?” is just one of the questions Diana poses. Because all of the parties involved are dead, because all of the enslaved people on the Zong never had any record of their experiences written down in the archive, Philip engages with the ghosts in order to interrogate the event itself and understand what took place. Arterian argues that understanding the effect of relayed trauma can close the distance between personal and political trauma.

The school year has begun and academic life seem pretty calm – for now! But midterms and finals will surely bring a torrent of stressful situations. Not to mention, being a graduate student can be difficult in between exams as well. We must balance research and classes with jobs, family responsibilities, and even financial insecurity from time to time (or always. Is it just me?) .

But never fear! These 5 self-care tips, inspired by recommendations from the American Psychological Association, will have you prepared to tackle almost any challenge this academic year.

1. Exercise Your Body. 

Heart-pumping exercise is a proven stress-buster. But one thing is for sure: running to class because you are five minutes late is not enough. Sustained activity for at least thirty minutes a day is recommended. If you aren’t the athletic type, try something fun like going for a hike or joining a zumba class.

2. Be mindful.

While getting your body moving is a good thing, sometimes your mind just needs to be still. Mindfulness has been scientifically proven to reduce stress, improve attention, and promote a general sense of well-being. Interested in learning more? Check out an on-campus mindfulness event like the ones featured below.

3. Find mentors.

Find that person who completed her Ph.D. in three years while working full-time with two kids. Get all of the tips you can get and never let go! Even if you don’t have a superhero faculty member or colleague, there are likely individuals in your department who have been on a journey similar to yours. Seek them out for advice. They will probably be very flattered that you even asked.

4. Rely on your friends.

If you are a graduate student, it is likely that a good chunk of your friends are also graduate students. Talk out your struggles together. It doesn’t matter how you do it: during a study session, over coffee, or in a What’sApp message. Make sure to keep in touch and check-in over the course of the semester.

5. Seek help if you need it.

If you are feeling overwhelmed, reach out for help. Student Counseling Services are available at the USC Engemenn Student Health Center. They offer a stress relief clinic as well as individual therapy, crisis support, and psychiatric therapy. If you are in need of immediate emotional support, call (213)740-7711 to speak with a crisis therapist.  

On April 18th, representatives from the University of Southern California, Loyola Marymount University, California State Polytechnic University, and California State University, Los Angeles met to discuss successes and next steps for the year-old Diversity, Inclusion and Access (DIA) Initiative to create pathways for underrepresented students to enter Ph.D. programs at higher rates.

The staff in attendance were asked, “Why is the DIA Initiative important?”

Left to right, Thomas Zachariah, LMU; Sally Pratt, Vice Provost, USC; Ricardo Machón, LMU.

As the Director of the McNair program at LMU, it is important for me that our school have like-minded partners to benefit our first generation, low income students.

– Thomas Zachariah, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of the McNair Scholars Program, Department of Mathematics, Loyola Marymount University

Students from low-income backgrounds often cannot pursue higher education because of other obligations, ‘If only I had help with health insurance. If only I had help with childcare. If only I didn’t have to work so much to pay the bills.’ The DIA Initiative provides access for students from Cal State LA, Cal Poly Pomona and LMU to doctoral programs at USC with tuition assistance, health benefits and stipends. This program is working to alleviate the ‘onlys’ that prevents students from continuing their studies.

– Sally Pratt, Ph.D., Vice Provost, USC Graduate Programs, The Graduate School, University of Southern California

We have so many inspiring students that I think will be great assets to USC’s doctoral programs. The DIA initiative helps to set up a direct pipeline between talented students and prestigious programs.”

– Ricardo Machón, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the Provost for Undergraduate Education, Professor of Psychology, Loyola Marymount University.

Robert Weide, Cal State LA

It has been important to me to help build a partnership with USC for students from Cal State LA. Our school is the largest working class university in Los Angeles with 90% of the school population being people of color and first generation. You should hear some of the stories of what my students go through to be in school. They are caring for families, dealing with the criminal justice system, working two or three jobs, but at the end of the day, they want the best education possible.

– Robert Weide, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Natural and Social Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles

Left to right, Linda Hoos, Cal Poly Pomona; Cheryl Koos, Cal State LA

Cal Poly has a robust STEM program. This is a great opportunity for our STEM students in underrepresented populations to progress in their degrees. It is also becoming an important recruitment tool for us to get more students into our programs, particularly STEM, knowing that we can connect them to higher education when they have finished at Cal Poly.

– Linda Hoos, J.D., Assistant Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Office of Equity, Inclusion and Compliance, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

The DIA Initiative demystifies the process of applying to doctoral programs. We’re here to benefit students.

– Cheryl Koos, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of History, College of Natural & Social Sciences, California State University, Los Angeles

Ashley Brooks, USC

At the helm of the DIA Initiative for USC is newly hired, Ashley Brooks.

Ashley Brooks joins USC after serving many years as the Engagement and Inclusion Consultant for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Los Angeles, as a hub of diverse cultures, backgrounds, races and ethnicities, was an enticing prospect for Brooks as she considered moving across the country. “As a first generation student and minority, I can relate to some of the challenges that traditionally underrepresented students face on college campuses,” Ashley explained about her decision to work for the DIA Initiative. “I’m excited for what lies ahead for me at USC.”

 

 

On Monday, April 17, 2017, nine distinguished USC Ph.D. candidates across various programs were honored at the Academic Honors Convocation for their superior research, dissertations, academic teaching abilities and strengthening the Trojan community.

Thomas Sapsford
Candidate: Ph.D., Classics
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship supports outstanding graduate students in the humanities and social sciences in finishing the final year of work on their Ph.D. dissertations. The highly competitive program is funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and recognizes only 65 scholars annually.

Thomas Sapsford, Candidate: Ph.D., Classics, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

A dedicated classicist and scholar, Thomas Sapsford analyzes performance in both Green and Roman contexts. His dissertation, “The Life of the Kinaidoi,“ considers the kinaidos/cinaedus, a figure in classical literature noted for effeminacy and the breaking of social taboos. Studying its cultural significance across Greek, Roman, and Greco-Roman Egyptian settings, he has unearthed a popular performance tradition associated with this archetype, which impacts on discussions of ancient sexuality and notions of sexual orientation in the classical world.

Before entering academia, Thomas earned acclaim as a professional dancer and choreographer.

Stephanie Canizales
Candidate: Ph.D., Sociology
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

The Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship honors doctoral candidates committed to a future of outstanding teaching and research, while embracing diversity as a resource for enriching the education of all students. A coveted distinction, this fellowship is awarded to just 35 recipients each year.

Stephanie Canizales, Candidate: Ph.D., Sociology, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Stephanie Canizales possess a passion for community outreach, as evinced by her impressive body of work as a social scientist and researcher. Her dissertation focuses on the experiences of Central American and Mexican youth who arrive to Los Angeles as unaccompanied minors, and examines their transition into adulthood in changing social, cultural, economic, and political contexts. Throughout her academic career, she has sought to broaden our understanding of youth migration and immigrant integration, as she helps define social membership for future generations.

Founded in 1897, Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest interdisciplinary honor society at USC. It recognizes scholarship and awards prizes annually to graduate and undergraduate students for creative and scholarly achievements.

Jotheeswari Kothandaraman, Candidate: Ph.D., Chemistry, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Article: “Conversion of Carbon Dioxide from Air into Methanol Using a Polyamine and Homogeneous Ruthenium Catalyst”

Jotheeswari Kothandaraman is helping advance humanity’s response to climate change – a phenomenon driven by the increase of carbon dioxide concentration in Earth’s atmosphere due to emissions from fossil fuels – as evidenced by her role as first author of a scholarly article published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Co-sponsored by a team at the USC Loker Hydrocarbon Research Institute that included the late Nobel laureate George Olah, as well as her mentor, G.K. Surya Prakash, she described a system for the production of methanol fuel from carbon dioxide in various sources. For the first time, she and her colleagues demonstrated that carbon dioxide captured from the air can be directly converted to methanol in a 79 percent yield using a homogenous catalytic system.

Brian Pak Yan Leung, Candidate: Ph.D., Neuroscience, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Project:“High Dimensional Analysis of the Myeloid Landscape in Neurodegenerative Diseases”

Aided by a grant from the National Science Foundation, Brian Pak Yan Leung’s innovative research in computation immunology has resulted in the application of exciting new methods for identifying and treating diseases. Working in Professor Terrence Town’s laboratory at USC, Brian collaborated with Professor Burkhard Becher of the Institute of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich. He utilized a process called mass cytometry to identify the specific cell types responsible for creating inflammatory lesions leading to chronic, progressive disabilities in patients with multiple sclerosis. This process combines a mass spectrophotometer with fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis (FACS analysis), enabling scientists to compare up to 100 different probes at a single cell level and resolve cellular subtypes in human blood samples more effectively than any previous technique.

Darshana Sreedhar Mini
Ph.D. student, Cinema and Media Studies
USC School of Cinematic Arts

Darshana Sreedhar Mini, Ph.D. student, Cinema and Media Studies, USC School of Cinematic Arts

Article: “Public Interest Television and Social Responsibility:The Search for the Missing Person in Indian Television”

In a paper published in the International Journal of Digital Television, Darshana Sreedhar Mini examines an Indian television show, Pravasalokam (The World of Expatriates), which focuses on the plight of poor migrant workers from the south Indian state of Kerala who travel to the Middle East and subsequently go missing. While stories of Indian nationals working overseas usually focus on highly educated medical professionals or technical experts, Darshana’s work reveals the potential of televisual media to illuminate social issues and mobilize humanitarian efforts. She illustrates how the show blends elements of reality television programs with investigative journalism, and how it invites its audience to actively participate in locating migrant workers and reuniting them with their families – leading to the creation of the nonprofit organization dedicated to this mission.

Fiona Wang palaces her stellar academic work with a staunch commitment to community outreach as she pursues her doctorate in the USC Leventhal School of Accounting. During the first year of her program, she co-founded Team SixThirty, a nonprofit organization that works with civic and government leaders to build better cities through data analytics. As a part of this groups, she spearheaded a citywide conference that attracted more than 150 professionals and students to discuss the future of open data, analytics, and sustainable urban design.

Since she arrived on campus in 2009, Fiona has impressed the USC community with her outstanding academic achievements. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in four years, graduating with distinction as a USC Discovery Scholar. Above all, Fiona is proud to call herself a “loyal Trojan,” while envisioning her future as an advocate for students, in the same way that her professors and mentors inspired her own successes.

Jenna Ross, Candidate: Ph.D., History, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Jenna Ross models professionalism, accessibility, and empathy as a teaching assistant in the USC Dornsife College. A natural teacher, she has shown exemplary initiative and resourcefulness in the classroom and beyond. She combines a keen intellect and solid command of her field with an extraordinarily warm and approachable personality, as well as a playful sense of humor. By breaking down and communicating complex topics with helpful visual aids and stimulating small group discussions, Jenna fosters a stable and organized atmosphere built on crystal-clear expectation and a genuine sense of eager anticipation. Her approach enhances productivity while retaining a high academic standard, allowing students to worry less about logistics and focus more on learning.

Kamia Smith, Candidate: Ph.D., Materials Science and Engineering, USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Kamia Smith is a beloved figure among materials science students and faculty at the Viterbi School – a friendly, relatable, and guiding presence in an especially demanding discipline. Lauded by her graduate advisor as the best teaching assistant he has encountered in his entire three-decade career, Kamia maintains an extraordinary patience that facilitates effective and uplifting classroom interactions. This unique ability to connect with students on a personal level garners extremely favorable reviews of her teaching style. Her conscientious instruction and helpful demeanor are frequently noted on her highly positive end-of-semester evaluations, including one that offered this particularly impassioned assessment other performance: “Don’t change a thing!”

Saurov Syed
Candidate: Ph.D., Linguistics
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science

Saurov Syed, Candidate: Ph.D., Linguistics, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Science

A tremendously versatile and energetic teacher, Saurov Syed possess a special gift for inspiring students from a broad range of academic backgrounds. Thrice he has earned perfect evaluations spanning multiple courses and professors, proving himself a resourceful and widely admired classroom leader. His students applaud his thorough explanations of complex course material, a practice that ensures a deep and meaningful retention of the information presented in lectures and reading assignments. They extol his presentations as “amazing” and “mesmerizing,” while uniformly praising his exemplary work ethic. As they see it, he “expands the parameters of what someone in his position should be expected to do.”

Doctoral student Nicholas Goldenson conducts research as a member of the University of Southern California Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory (USC-HEAL) and is a trainee in the USC Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science (USC TCORS).  His research is focused on understanding the determinants of e-cigarette appeal and dependence to provide the federal government with comprehensive data that will inform regulatory policies.

Creating comprehensive regulatory policy can be a fraught process in government, especially in response to new technology and products. Politics, private business, consumers, and media all seek to influence legislative outcomes, resulting in a murky and less than ideal decision making environment. Where does government turn for cutting-edge research and vetted information?

USC TCORS is one of 14 tobacco regulatory science centers nationwide doing their part to ensure government regulators and decision-makers have comprehensive data on which to build evidentiary-based policies to protect the health and well-being of the American people. Third-year PhD student, Nicholas Goldenson, is a member of the USC team working to ensure that the Federal Food and Drug Administration has the critical information to inform their activities regarding a new regulatory challenge, e-cigarettes.

With the guidance of his adviser Dr. Adam Leventhal, Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine and Psychology, and faculty in the Department of Preventive Medicine, Goldenson is exploring the role flavorings play in e-cigarettes and how they influence consumer appeal of the product. E-cigarettes are often touted as a “safer” alternative to cigarettes given that users are not inhaling smoke or tar. However, e-cigarettes are still a fairly new phenomenon and the long-term effects of inhaling nicotine-filled vapor are unclear. Goldenson and TCORS are using their research to look at the broader context of addiction and how this new product, particularly the use of flavorings, may enhance their appeal.

“I’ve always been fascinated by people and wanting to understand their behavior,” Goldenson states. This curiosity led him to earn a bachelor of arts in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2009. Post-graduation, he continued using his psychology and research skills for the benefit of other vulnerable populations, including as a health scientist specialist at the Veterans’ Administration West Los Angeles Healthcare System. Working with a multidisciplinary team, his work at the VA focused on research studies to provide better services for veterans with mental illnesses.

Goldenson loves doing research and wishes to continue in post-doctoral research after completing his PhD. But what Goldenson really appreciates both about his work experience and his research at USC TCORS is that it’s clear how his work is linked to implementation – one can understand the context in which the research will be used. “TCORS allows for a lot of great training and collaboration opportunities,” Goldenson and several of his colleagues have attended conferences in Washington, D.C. where they shared the results of their work. The center is interdisciplinary and while his research focuses specifically on the user experience of the product, another research team is examining how the use of social media advertising may influence product popularity.

Ultimately, TCORS and Goldenson understand that behavior, decisions, addiction, and human outcomes do not occur in a vacuum. Providing comprehensive data means viewing the details and finding the linkages in the big picture to provide better solutions for overall public health.