For the Record - Week of Jan. 9, 2026

Publication Date

Lewis Davis, the Thomas Armstrong Professor of Economics, and Nabamita Dutta have published a paper, "Individualism and Economic Freedom," in Kyklos. The article finds that individualism predicts the Economic Freedom Index, a measure of free-market policies that has been linked to growth and entrepreneurship. The paper raises questions about whether it is liberal policies or the individualist values that underlie them that matter for economic growth.

Pravini S. Fernando, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, recently presented her research titled “Beyond the Majority Rules Principle - Asymmetric Packing in TPT-T Conjugated Polymer Leading to Homochiral Films” at the 2025 Materials Research Society Fall Meeting in Boston.

Jennifer Fredricks, professor of psychology, co-authored the paper "Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the multidimensional school engagement scale: A comparative study of Chilean and U.S. students" in the European Journal of Psychological Assessment with colleagues at the University of Concepción and The University of Chicago.

David P. Gillikin, the William D. Williams Professor and Chair of Geosciences, co-authored an article with Lauren Graniero ‘12 and Donna Surge (UNC Chapel Hill), published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. The article titled “Growth cessation and metabolism complicate Rangia cuneata shells as an environmental proxy” shows that these clams stop growing during stressful conditions and do not record environmental conditions in their shells like other clams do.

Ali Hamed, the Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Emma Watson Day Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Department Chair, has published an article in Physics of Fluids. "Turbulent flow past a finite wall-mounted cylinder at various degrees of upstream sheltering: Effects of the number of upstream cylinders" is co-authored by Benjamin Mlavsky ’25 and Timothy Belin ’26.

Trishikha Kiran Rao '25 published her senior thesis, "Ego and academic ethics: A brief investigation into the associations among three facets of narcissism, academic entitlement, and academic dishonesty," in Personality and Individual Differences.

Ellen Robertson, associate professor of chemistry and co-director of nanotechnology, Chris Whitehead, the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Antonia Soto Carrillo '27 and C'Lannye James '25 published a research paper entitled "Incorporating Gold Nanoparticles with Varying Diameters into Freely Floating Nanosheets via a Biphasic Monolayer Adsorption Assembly Mechanism" in the American Chemical Society journal Langmuir. Their article demonstrates that it is possible to incorporate gold nanoparticles (between 10 - 80 nanometers in diameter) into a nanosheet that is only 2.5 nanometers thick. Their findings open the door for creating multifunctional hybrid nanomaterials for various sensing applications.

Kimmo Rosenthal, professor emeritus of mathematics, published two essays in December. "The Sleep of Reason" is in the journal After the Art, wherein essays must connect a work of art with a literary text. In this case, the etching "The Sleep of Reason" by Francisco Goya from 1797-1798 is discussed with regard to Djuna Barnes' classic novel Nightwood from 1936. "Polyphony at the Limits of Language," appearing in Sage Cigarettes Magazine, is a book review of Cristina Rivera Garza's novel Death Takes Me. Ostensibly a detective novel, her book interweaves the themes of gendered violence, the poetry of Alejandra Pizarnik and the act of writing itself.

Mason Stahl, the James M. Kenney Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering, and Bayley Sbardellati '25 are co-authors on a paper titled "Isoscapes as a Regional-Scale Tool for Tracing Groundwater Uranium Cycling in the Northern Plains, United States," which was just published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Tengteng Tang, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, recently published a research paper in Composites Science and Technology titled "Enhancing polymer composite performance through optimized alignment with machine learning and in-situ monitoring in electrically assisted vat photopolymerization." The study focuses on advanced additive manufacturing and intelligent materials, and it demonstrates outcomes with broad impact across engineering and applied sciences.

Nicole Theodosiou, associate professor of biology, and Anyerys Diaz '24 published a study in the journal Developmental Biology. The research examines the cell behaviors involved when symmetry is broken during the development of organs. Specifically, they found that while asymmetry is achieved by evolutionary conserved mechanisms in the skate spiral intestine, these conserved mechanisms are preceded in the skate by left-right differences in mesenchymal cell proliferation.

D. Catherine Walker, associate professor of psychology, and coauthors Dr. Lily O'Hara from Griffith University in Queensland, AU, and Dr. Erin Harrop from Denver University, recently co-edited a special topic called "The Mental Health Impact of Weight Stigma" in Frontiers in Psychiatry. They published the editorial alongside the completed special topic.

D. Catherine Walker, associate professor of psychology, and George Y. Bizer, the Gilbert R. Livingston Professor of the Behavioral Sciences, along with students Mai P. N. Tran '26 and Samuel T. Flynn '26, recently published the article "Initial Attempts to Detect or Screen Out AI Responses Prove Elusive in the Age of Agentic AI" in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Carol Weisse, the Ronald M. Obenzinger Professor of Psychology and director of health professions, co-developed with former NY6 colleague Kelly Melekis a symposium, Improving Death Literacy Through Interdisciplinary Research-Practice Partnerships and Experiential Learning, that was presented at the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America Conference in Boston. In the symposium, she presented "Final Scenes: Death Literacy Through Devised Theater" and co-presented "Hyperactive Delirium Among Home Hospice Patients: Improving Death Literacy Through Community-Based Research" with Jordan Whittier '25. At this same conference, Weisse co-authored a poster entitled "Unusual Perceptual Experiences at the End-of-Life: Caregiver Responses and Implications for Symptom Management" with Meredith Killian '24.

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