The work of CSUN faculty and staff members is recognized in a variety of ways, including:

• Funding from outside organizations to support unique programs and cutting-edge research facilitated on campus.
• Publications of books or articles.
• Professional awards.
• Presentations at conferences.
• Appointments and elections to governing boards.

Please use this link to announce your achievements for publication in CSUN Today.

Below is a list of the individuals whose work was recognized from November 2023 to January 2024.

Awards

Tigran Arakelyan (Music) is named among the Top 30 Professionals of the Year by Musical America Worldwide. Earlier this year, he earned a “40 Under 40” award in Washington’s 425 Business Magazine.

Irene Clark (English) received a Campus Initiative Fund Award titled “Literacy Narratives and Current Multicultural Perspectives.”

Maria Dunlap (English) won the 2023 Margaret Atwood Society award for Best Undergraduate essay — titled “Through Double Doors.”

Xóchitl M. Flores-Marcial (Chicana/o Studies) is now the chair of the Mexican Studies Section for the Conference on Latin American History which is part of the American Historical Association (AHA). She recently chaired the roundtable at the AHA annual meeting in San Francisco, “New Voices in Mexican Historical Studies,” and presented a paper at the same conference — on a panel titled “The Issue of Marriage and Family in the Colonial Iberian World: Representation, Consumerism and Survival.” She co-authored a recently published Digital Studies / Le champ numérique article, “Colonial and Nineteenth-Century Latin American Studies and Digital Public Humanities.”

Vanessa L. Martínez (Office of the Dean of Humanities) has been selected by the Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education | NASPA Center for Women to receive the 2024 Ruth Strang Award. At the NASPA Annual Conference in March 2024, she will be presented with the award at the Center for Women/Womxn in Student Affairs Knowledge Community Alice Manicur Symposium Alum Reception.

Khanum Shaikh (Gender and Women’s Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award to pursue research for her current book project, “Moving Through Culture: Gender and Urban Transformation in Contemporary Pakistan.”

Danielle Spratt (English) along with co-project directors Nicole Shibata (University Library), Heidi Schumacher (Gender and Women’s Studies), Ellen Jarosz (University Library) and Melisa Galván (Chicana/o Studies) received a 2024-25 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Award for their project, “Blank Spaces in the CSUN University Library Archives.”

Mitchell Thomas (Finance), Certified Public Accountant, has been named a new audit partner for the Santa Barbara and Ventura-based accounting firm Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co. LLP.

Brandy Underwood (English) has been elected to the executive committee of MELUS, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, as project chair. She will serve from 2024-27.

Publications

Ryan Baylor, Sean Flanagan, Jacob Hinkel-Lipsker and Victoria Jaque (Kinesiology) recently published an article, “Older People Trip, Some Fall – A Program to Decrease Seniors’ Fall Risk.” It was published in the Strength & Conditioning Journal Vol. 45, No. 6, December 2023.

Jennifer Berry (Gender and Women’s Studies) recently had a piece published in Best Stage Monologues for Women 2023 by Smith and Kraus Publication, edited by Debbie Lamedman.

Danielle Spratt and Jennifer Sams (English) were featured in the “Remnants of Resistance” podcast by CSUN’s Queer Studies Program and the University Library Special Collections & Archives. The episode is titled “Queering the Page and the Nature of Disruption.”

Colleen Tripp (English) published two articles, “Empires of Extraction: Silver Field Ecologies and Eugenics in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s ‘Mexican Gothic’” in Studies in American Fiction, and “‘Coach, I Got a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas Anymore:’ Ted Lasso and the Heartland Mythos” in The Journal of American Culture. She also has a forthcoming article that’s scheduled to appear in the journal Nineteenth-Century Studies entitled “Ornamentalism and Spectacle Ethnography in Sui Sin Far’s ‘Mrs. Spring Fragrance.’“

Svetlana Tyutina (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently published a bilingual book of short stories about the Mexican deaf community, Escuchar sin oír: Relatos del Silencio // Listening without Hearing: Tales of Silence.

George Uba (English) published a poem, “Full Service at J & S Shell,” in the New England Review, Vol. 44, No. 2. His poem, “Girl Receives Rose, a Narrative” was named a finalist for the 54th New Millennium Writing Awards.

Research and Sponsored Projects

Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $71,862 from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in support of a project entitled “Targeting Brain-Metastatic Breast Tumors with HER3-Homing Bioparticles.”

Alyssa Arentoft (Psychology) has received $55,134 from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, in support of her project, “The Health and Aging Brain Study – Health Disparities (HABS-HD),” and $26,417 from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in support of a project entitled “Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI-4).”

Behzad Bavarian (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $18,375 from the Savannah River National Laboratory, in support of a project, “Tank Bottom Corrosion Control Monitoring for Materials Technology & Energy Section.”

Annette Besnilian (Marilyn Magaram Center) and David Boyns (Community Health & Well-Being) have received $395,500 from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, in support of the project “CSUN CalFresh Healthy Living Program.”

Tiffani Brooks (Social Work) has received $20,061 from the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program.”

Robert Carpenter and Peter Edmunds (Biology) each received $145,556 from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in support of their project, “LTER: MCR IV: Long-Term Dynamics of a Coral Reef Ecosystem.”

Zhen Chai (Special Education) has received $248,606 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of the project, “Project CREATE: Preparing Culturally Responsive Early Educators in Teacher Education,” and $119,065 in support of a project entitled “The Bridge Project: Bringing Early Childhood Special Educators and Behavior Interventionists Together Through Interdisciplinary, Evidence-Based Preparation to Serve Young Children with High-Intensity Needs.”

Thomas Chan (Psychology), John Valdovinos and Xiyi Hang (Electrial and Computer Engineering) have received $100,000 from the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), in support of a project entitled “NIH AIM-AHEAD PAIR,” and $100,000 from the NIH in support of a project entitled “Health Equity in Aging Congenital Heart Patients.”

Gary Chapman (Physics and Astronomy) has received $72,213 from NASA, in support of his project, “Studying solar irradiance variations using full-disk indices from continuum, UV, magnetic field and spectrographic data from ground- and space-based images ”.

Rafi Efrat (Bookstein Institute), Merav Efrat (Health Sciences) and Sara Berzenski (Psychology) have received $450,000 from the U.S. Department of Treasury, in support of a project entitled “The CSUN VITA Program.”

Maria Elizondo (Student Affairs) has received $80,904 from the Cal State Chico, in support of the project “CalFresh Outreach FFY 2022-24.”

Michael Eller (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $246,554 from the Brookhaven National Laboratory, in support of the project, “Angstrom Era Semiconductor Patterning Material Development Accelerator” and $141,158 from the Mayo Clinic, in support of a project entitled “Mass spectrometry for highly sensitive and sample-sparing analysis of extracellularvesicles in liver diseases.”

Brian Foley (Secondary Education), Virginia Oberholzer Vandergon (Biology) and Kellie Evans (Mathematics) have received $241,651 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Extending and Enhancing the STEM Teacher Pipeline through a Community of Learners and Virtual Lesson Study.”

Holli Tonyan Gajadhar (Institutional Research) has received $30,000 from the California State University Chancellor’s Office, in support of the project “Building Transformational Cultures of Data Use for Student Success.”

Shu-Sha Guan (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $99,983 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Establishing an Inter-institutional San Fernando Valley Collaborative to Improve STEM Transfer Student Support, Retention and Graduation.”

Nhut Ho, Amiel Hartman (Mechanical Engineering), Xunfei Jiang (Computer Science) and Kacie Blackman (Health Sciences) have received $77,596 from the Administration for Community Living, in support of a project entitled “Development of Semi-Autonomous Wheelchair and Socially-Aware Robot Health Aid to Encourage Community Participation for Persons with Low Mobility.”

Bradley Jackson (Electrical and Computer Engineering) has received $25,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of a project entitled “Wideband Array Antenna with Digital Beamforming.”

Xudong Jia (Engineering and Computer Science, Office of the Dean) has received $800,000 from UCLA, in support of the project “Climate Action – Community-Driven Electric Vehicle Charging Solution (CA-CLEAN),” and $25,126 from Cal Poly Pomona, in support of a project entitled “Statewide Collision Data Analysis, Research Studies and Ranking Program.”

Jonathan Kelber (Biology) has received $129,526 from the National Institutes of Health, in support of a project entitled “Spatiotemporal mechanisms of eIF5A1/2-mediated metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer.”

Jing Li (Mathematics) has received $90,343 from the National Science Foundation, in support of a project entitled “Collaborative Research: Structured Population Dynamics Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints.”

Tyler Luchko (Physics and Astronomy), Ravinder Abrol (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Maria-Rita D’Orsogna (Mathematics), Rabia Djellouli (Mathematics) and Rachel Mackelprang (Biology) have received $730,520 from the National Science Foundation, in support of their project, “MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a High-Performance Computer Cluster for Computational Biology.”

Regan Maas (Geospatial Science and Technology) has received $100,000 from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in support of a project entitled “Geological and Geophysical (G&G) Dataset Improvement.”

Rachel Friedman-Narr (Special Education) and Flavia Fleischer (Deaf Studies) have received $249,415 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of their project, “Project PRISM-Ed (Preparing a Pipeline for Recruitment and Retention of Social Justice and Equity-Minded Deaf Educators).”

Jennifer Pemberton (Strength United) and Merilla Scott have received $204,500 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “Campus Sexual Assault (CT) Program.”

Dianne Philibosian (Community Health and Wellbeing ) has received $67,730 from the San Fernando Community Health Center, in support of her project “Child Development Screening Referral Program with San Fernando Community Health Center and the Institute for Community Health and Wellbeing at California State University, Northridge.”

Bethany Rainisch (Health Sciences) has received $374,960 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in support of a project entitled “MATAspire: Mental health Awareness Tailored App for Substance Prevention and Integrated Resilience Education.”

S.K. Ramesh (Engineering and Computer Science) has received $599,658 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Strengthening Equitable Culturally Responsive Environments (SECURE) for Student Success: Using a Servingness Model to Support Hispanic and Underrepresented Students.”

Nayan Ramirez (Criminology and Justice Studies) has received $45,551 from Northeastern University, in support of a project entitled “The Impact of Longitudinal Social Networks on Young Adult Substance Use and Misuse.”

Luca Ricci (Physics and Astronomy) has received $152,820 from the Space Telescope Science Institute, in support of his project, “Investigating the Disk-Planet Interaction in the HD 163296 System with JWST.”

Cristina Rubino and Loren Naidoo (Management) have received $267,571 from Social Policy Research Associates, Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Evaluation Services for the Youth Jobs Corps Program in the City of Los Angeles.”

Emily Russell (Child and Adolescent Development) has received $102,857 from Jumpstart Inc., in support of her project, “Jumpstart Northridge,” and $293,037 from Brown University, in support of a project entitled “Scaling Student Support with Conversational Artificial Intelligence.”

Christoph Schaal (Mechanical Engineering) has received $40,000 from the Aerospace Corporation, in support of his project, “Concept Development and Feasibility Study for In-Space Inspection of Bonded Joints.”

Merilla Scott (Strength United) has received $26,265 from the City of Los Angeles, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Program,” $196,906 from the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES), in support of a project entitled “Unserved/Underserved Victim Advocacy and Outreach Program,” $90,000 from CalOES, in support of a project entitled “Sexual Assault Response Team (XS) Program,” $3.5 million from Rising Communities, in support of a project entitled “Community Public Health Teams,” $377,804 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM NW16” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled “CalOES RAPE CRISIS PROGRAM VN16.”

Nyssa Silbiger (Biology) has received $29,608 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of the project “Sustaining and Expanding the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System (SCCOOS)” and $694,470 from the California Office of Emergency Services, in support of a project entitled.”

Jolene Swain and Darlene Woo (Social Work) have received $18,004 from the Rancho San Antonio Boys Home Incorporated, in support of a project entitled “Mentored Internship Program (MIP).”

Maryam Tabibzadeh (Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Management) has received $51,660 from UCLA, in support of her project “Extending Human Reliability Analysis Methods for Explicit Inclusion of Organizational Factors: Methodology and PRA Implications.”

Joseph Teprovich (Chemistry and Biochemistry) has received $40,099 from Sandia National Laboratories, in support of a project entitled “Synthesis of practical high temperature superconductors in hydrogen-rich materials.”

Samantha Toews and Fatmana Deniz (Special Education) have received $211,856 from the U.S. Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Reconceptualizing Educator Preparation to Empower All Students through Culturally Sustaining and High Leverage Inclusive Teaching.”

Svetlana Tyutina and Daniela Salcedo Arnaiz (Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures) recently participated in the 2024 MLA Annual Convention in Philadelphia, in a roundtable, “Teaching Beyond University.” Tyutina organized the table and Salcedo Arnaiz presented “A Learning journey: 3 Experiences of Traveling and Studying Languages and Cultures.”

Ivor Weiner (Special Education) has received $385,620 from the California Department of Education, in support of a project entitled “Family Focus Empowerment Center,” and $326,682 from Heluna Health, in support of a project entitled “Community Navigator Program.”

Jenn Wolfe (Secondary Education) has received $25,000 from the Regents of the University of California, in support of a project entitled “CSMP Learning Acceleration Funds.”

Xu Zhang (Physics and Astronomy) has received $128,084 from the National Science Foundation, in support of the project “RUI: Exciton-Phonon Interactions in Solids based on Time-Dependent Density Functional Perturbation Theory.”

Chicano, College of Science and Mathematics, CSUN Music Department, Department of Criminology and Justice Studies, Department of English, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, Department of Humanities, Department of Kinesiology, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Department of Psychology, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Special Education, Strength United