Hearing loss and tinnitus are the two most common service-related disabilities among U.S. veterans, affecting more than three million people nationwide.

Knowing military service members are routinely exposed to noise that can cause lasting auditory damage, which can make school harder for active duty and student veterans, Karen Doherty, senior associate dean for faculty affairs and professor in the in the, and Tammy Kordas, associate teaching professor also in CSD, set out to learn how tinnitus may be impacting veteran students on campus.

When the two certified audiologists initially went looking for existing research on the prevalence of tinnitus—a ringing or other noise in the ears that isn’t caused by external sound—among veterans on college campuses, they found almost nothing.

So they, along with two of their doctoral students, Marissa Merrifield and Joshua Deus, surveyed service members and veterans currently enrolled at ������ to explore the relationship between self-perceived hearing difficulty and listening fatigue and self-perceived hearing difficulty and tinnitus severity.

The two faculty members have collaborated on research in the past, though this is their first project focused on veterans. Together, they bring complementary expertise to the project. Doherty contributes a research perspective, while Kordas brings a clinical perspective and specialized training in tinnitus management through her work with patients at the .

Doherty says the sparse literature on student veterans and tinnitus wasn’t entirely surprising. Most tinnitus research focuses on older veterans, the demographic that arrives at VA medical centers in their 60s and 70s, ready for hearing aids for diagnosed hearing loss.

Student veterans, meanwhile, appeared to occupy a different and largely unexamined space.

“You might have ‘normal’ hearing yet have a lot of difficulty hearing in background noise as well as challenges in trying to deal with the secondary effects of tinnitus,” Doherty says.

To get a sense of how much tinnitus impacts student veterans, they sent out the survey with the help of��retired U.S. Army Colonel��, executive director of the .��

Determining the Prevalence—and Impact—of Tinnitus

The research team developed a survey combining standardized outcome measures for determining self-perceived listening difficulties and the severity of a person’s tinnitus. Original questions about the students’ past noise exposures, such as firearms, explosions or piloted aircraft, were included.

“Tinnitus is one of the most common service-connected injuries affecting members as they transition out of military service,” Novack says. “It affects your quality of sleep, your concentration. It affects stress levels for you, either up or down, depending on the acoustics in the environment in which you’re operating. It affects your ability, or a student’s ability, to fully engage in learning environments.”

For student veterans, experiencing tinnitus could mean difficulty focusing during lectures or increased fatigue, with background noise in a classroom forcing them to work twice as hard to hear the lesson.

“The tinnitus itself wears on anyone,” Novack says. “It can increase anxiety in what we would like to see and experience as a quiet learning environment. And veterans may not come right out and tell someone they have this problem. They’re going to go into a classroom, and they’re going to find a way to navigate that invisible disability potentially without an accommodation, because they don’t think it’s a big deal. So they might be recording the whole entire lecture and then come back and take notes at their own pace and cadence.”

The research team sent the survey to 270 student veterans in the fall and 97 responded. Of those students, 82% reported experiencing tinnitus.

Students who reported experiencing tinnitus went on to complete a standardized test measuring the severity. Forty percent reported bothersome tinnitus, which indicates it is affecting quality of life. Only about 10% of the general population in the same age range experiences bothersome tinnitus.

“We went into this with certain hypotheses, one of them being that exposure to loud noise during military service would be associated with higher rates of tinnitus,” Doherty says. “But we didn’t know it was going to be more than twice those of traditional college students. We were really surprised.”

A Starting Point

Kordas, Doherty and Novack all agree that identifying the scope of the problem is only the first step toward developing meaningful support and solutions.

“It gives us more of an opportunity to move from an anecdotal awareness on campus, toward a more data-informed understanding of how this issue really affects student veterans at the University,” Novack says.

Doherty and Kordas aim to implement interventions for student veterans with listening difficulties and tinnitus, including using hearing assistive technologies in the classroom that improve signal-to-noise ratios in lecture settings. This would potentially reduce fatigue and listening effort.

The researchers also hope to bring student veterans into a clinic setting to assess whether their tinnitus is accompanied by measurable hearing loss.

“You can manage and treat tinnitus, so knowledge is power,” Kordas says. “I think providing them with informational counseling about this condition would be beneficial as well.”

Many student veterans may already be eligible for treatment or other interventions for their hearing difficulties through the VA medical center.

“‘I need assistance,’ that’s what our veterans need to say,” Novack says. “Once they do that, we have the here on campus and we have the VITAL program where we can help knock down barriers and facilitate care for our veterans who might need accommodations, need to have this tinnitus addressed and put in a care plan to assist them.”��

First for Veterans

The University’s infrastructure for veterans made this research possible in a way few universities could replicate, Doherty says.

“We couldn’t do this without the veteran center being the way it is, and Ron’s support of the project was an integral part of its success,” she says.

Novack says the OVMA is always eager to partner and support “responsible research that helps better inform and understand the lived experience of our veterans.”

“It’s small things like this that move the needle each and every day,” he says. “And our longstanding institutional commitment is what brings transitioning service members to Syracuse, because they know when they come here, they’re going to get taken care of, that this institution has a national reputation for taking care of those who have worn the nation’s cloth.”

What the research team learned and implements as a result of their recent study could serve as a model for other academic institutions with smaller veteran programs and less organized support systems, Doherty says.

“There are a lot of people who have tinnitus and there are ways to treat it,” Kordas says. “It may not go away completely, but the goal is to manage it and reduce how much it affects daily life.”

Eleven ������ students and alumni have been selected as 2026 recipients of awards, with three additional students named as alternates. The prestigious program, which funds English teaching assistantships and study/research grants in more than 140 countries, will send this year’s Syracuse cohort across four continents to teach, conduct research and build cross-cultural connections.

The 2026 recipients are the following:

• Bobby Battle ’26 (School of Education), English Teaching Assistantship (ETA), Spain
• Christian Bevilacqua ’24, G’26 (School of Education, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences), study grant, United Kingdom
• Gabriel Calloway ’26 (Maxwell School and A&S), ETA, Brazil
• Andrew Danik G’23 (Maxwell School), research award, Namibia
• Molly Grow ’26 (School of Education), ETA, South Korea
• Troyesha Parks ’22, G’23 (Falk College of Sport, Maxwell School), ETA, Taiwan
• Maya Philipp (Ph.D. in biology, College of Arts and Sciences), Azores Regional Government Research Award, Portugal
• Sarah Schreiber ’26 (Maxwell School and A&S), ETA, Cambodia
• Iona Volynets ’24 (Maxwell School and A&S), research award, Kazakhstan
• Anya von Wolff ’26 (College of Visual and Performing Arts), Fulbright Combined Award, Austria
• Ernestine Whitaker G’26 (Ph.D. student in anthropology, Maxwell School), study grant, Italy

Three additional students were named alternates: Nathaniel Hasanaj ’25 (Maxwell School and A&S), ETA, Kosovo; Sarah Leonard ’26 (School of Education), ETA, Spain; and Lilyan Minicozzi ’26 (VPA), study grant, United Kingdom.

Two of the recipients—Maya Philipp and Sarah Schreiber—show the two sides of the program up close: one heading abroad to conduct research, the other to teach.

Maya Philipp: Tracking Whales in the Azores

Philipp will spend her Fulbright year in the Azores, working with researchers at the Institute of Marine Science–Okeanos at the University of the Azores to study sperm whale distribution and behavior.

Her project draws on high-resolution biologging tags that capture audio, location and movement data from whales, paired with satellite oceanographic data, allowing her to model where the animals are likely to be and what they’re doing at any given time.

The work will form the third chapter of her doctoral dissertation, which examines how large whales’ movement patterns reveal the “prey landscapes” they navigate in shifting marine environments.

Philipp’s research carries real stakes beyond her dissertation. The Azores sit along one of the busiest shipping corridors connecting the Americas and Europe, and rising vessel traffic has coincided with a growing number of sperm whale injuries and deaths. By predicting where whales will surface and travel, Philipp’s models could help ships steer clear of high-risk zones, reducing collisions while also helping whale-watching operators locate the animals.

Beyond the science, Philipp sees the year as a chance to deepen her Portuguese and immerse herself in local life, serving as a cultural ambassador as much as a researcher.

“By the end of the program, I hope to come away with insights that can help protect sperm whales while serving the local economy, and collaborations that will continue well after my time as a Fulbright researcher,” she says.

Sarah Schreiber: Teaching English in Cambodia

Schreiber says her background in international relations and environmental policy gives her a unique perspective on the English��language learning classroom.

“I have been a language student myself many times, which will aid me in understanding my students’ needs and designing exercises that work best for them,” she says. “My studies at Syracuse taught me the intercultural communication skills necessary to succeed.”

Her interest in Cambodia traces back to an undergraduate paper on women under the Khmer Rouge, which she wrote for a course on atrocity studies. It left her wanting to understand more about how Cambodia has rebuilt itself over the past three decades. She’s spent the months leading up to her departure studying Khmer and connecting with fellow Fulbright grantees headed to the region.

Beyond the classroom, Schreiber plans to volunteer after school hours running English clubs, and possibly a dance club as well, as part of a broader effort to serve as a thoughtful guest in the country and a genuine cultural bridge between Cambodia and the United States.

All students were assisted by the (CFSA) in the preparation of their Fulbright applications. Students and alumni interested in the 2026-27 Fulbright cycle should contact the CFSA at cfsa@syr.edu.

Aaron Lener ’27 still remembers the exact moment linguistics stopped being a subject he was curious about and became the work of his life.

As a high school senior sitting in on a historical linguistics class by , associate professor of linguistics in the , Lener heard about the Bantoid languages of West Africa.

By the time classes started that fall, he had a research proposal in hand and a seat on Green’s research team. Three years later, that early spark has grown into a body of work substantial enough to earn him a , one of the most competitive graduate fellowships in the country.

The Beinecke Scholarship provides substantial funding for the graduate education of young people of exceptional promise. It is open to junior-year college students and was created to enable them to be courageous in selecting research or creative-focused courses of graduate study in the arts, humanities or social sciences. Lener was one of 16 Beinecke Scholars selected from a national pool of nominated students in 2026.

Lener’s résumé is wide-ranging. He is a double major in linguistic studies and international relations, a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program and is a 2026-27 Remembrance Scholar. He has engaged in fieldwork on endangered Nigerian languages, a policy internship in Brussels, Belgium, and a courtroom-observation stint in New York’s court system. During a study abroad semester in Strasbourg, France, he also held a position inside the Council of Europe’s Directorate General of Social Rights, where he researched case law affecting more than 700 million people.

A Family Connection

All of Lener’s work around the power of language traces back to his home. Lener grew up in rural Homer, New York, 35 minutes from the Onondaga Nation, with a great-grandmother born to Mohawk Nation parents.

Hearing family stories about language repression left him, in his words, with “an acute understanding of the dangers of language loss,” an awareness that now animates his research on Jhar and Gwak, two severely understudied Jarawan languages spoken in Nigeria.

As the only syntactician on Green’s team, Lener has spent three years building an analysis of how these languages express negation, working from recordings gathered through WhatsApp calls with native speakers thousands of miles away.

It is at times frustrating work—Lener describes trying to parse grammatical structure over calls with motorcycles in the background—but it has already produced a first-author paper under review at Studies in African Linguistics and presentations at conferences from Cornell to the University of Notre Dame to the Annual Conference on African Linguistics in Buffalo.

Scholarship Based on Experience

Much of Lener’s distinctive scholarship draws on experience outside a linguistics department. His Russian minor, initially a personal interest, turned out to connect directly to his fieldwork.

Much of the foundational theory behind modern syntax emerged from the Russian Formalist movement. Lener has researched that history alongside his African-language work, a link made more urgent, he says, by Russia’s growing military presence in West African nations like Burkina Faso and Niger, not far from where his Jhar and Gwak language consultants live.

A summer with Education International in Brussels had him producing a policy toolkit on mother-tongue education for teachers’ federations across Africa. His work in Strasbourg, reviewing European Social Charter compliance and researching labor protections for platform workers, has little to do with Jarawan syntax on its surface. But Lener sees it as one more facet of the same conviction: that language, whether encoded in grammar or in law, is fundamentally about how people are seen and protected.

After noticing members of his own rural community were struggling to connect with the Spanish-speaking migrant workers who had recently moved there, Lener started a series of community Spanish classes in Homer. He later taught English to refugees from Ukraine, Sudan and Afghanistan through a Syracuse resettlement program. Showing people that unfamiliar languages and cultures “are not scary” is one of the most direct ways to combat the fear that comes from a lack of exposure.

Jolynn Parker, director of Syracuse’s , says Lener has “extraordinary energy, boundless curiosity and a keen analytical mind.”

“Aaron is poised to be a leader in the field of linguistics and to contribute meaningfully to the description and preservation of threatened languages,” she says.

As for the future, Lener is certain he will be using language to make a difference in the world.

“I want to look in the mirror and tell myself, with confidence, that I am doing something good for others,” he says.��

Earth has a natural thermostat that has kept the planet habitable for more than a hundred million years. Scientists have struggled to fully explain how it works, but new research identifies a missing link between phosphate availability and sea level. Temperature influenced the size of polar ice sheets and sea level. Sea level changes drove the availability of this nutrient and controlled how much carbon was buried in the ocean, which in turn regulates how much carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere and how warm or cool the planet runs.

��co-authored by��, professor of Earth and environmental sciences in the University’s , traces how fluctuating sea levels and dissolved oxygen content controlled the availability of phosphate in the ocean and atmospheric carbon dioxide accumulation stretching across the last 60 million years. The research was published in .

“We know that atmospheric carbon dioxide decreased substantially as Earth cooled over the last 60 million years, but we have had remarkably little understanding of where that carbon ended up,” says lead author��, professor of Earth sciences at the University of Oxford,��. “Our results suggest that enhanced burial of organic carbon in marine sediments played a much more important role than was previously appreciated.”

The key to the study is phosphorus, specifically phosphate, an essential nutrient for marine life that the researchers describe as a previously “invisible” piece of the puzzle. At high sea levels, broad continental shelves efficiently trapped phosphate in shallow sediments, starving the open ocean of the nutrient. With less phosphate available, marine productivity declined, less organic carbon was buried on the seafloor and the ocean became well-oxygenated—while carbon dioxide built up in the atmosphere.

As sea levels fell, that dynamic reversed. Shrinking shelves released more phosphate into the water column, fueling a bloom in marine life. As that organic matter sank and decomposed, it consumed oxygen from the water until low-oxygen zones began to emerge. When those low-oxygen zones extended into contact with carbon-rich shelf sediments, they triggered a feedback loop in which oxygen-poor conditions caused more phosphate to be released from sediments, driving further organic carbon burial and pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere.

“Our co-author, Christian Bjerrum, studied the connection among sea level, ocean oxygen and phosphate with a computer model two decades ago,” Lu says. “We finally pieced together the geologic records necessary to test this hypothesis.”

The researchers identified a sea-level “sweet spot,” roughly 10 to 40 meters above modern sea level, where this feedback was most powerful. At that range, oxygen minimum zones overlapped precisely with the organic-rich sediments of the continental shelf, maximizing carbon burial for millions of years at a time. The team matched these patterns against 60 million years of geological data, including carbon isotope records, phosphorus accumulation rates in deep-sea sediments and a novel iodine-to-calcium proxy developed to reconstruct past ocean oxygen levels.

Lu’s lab conducted the iodine-to-calcium measurements, a technique that uses the chemistry of ancient foraminifera, microscopic marine organisms preserved in seafloor sediments, to reconstruct oxygen conditions in the ancient water column. Samples were analyzed using a mass spectrometer at ������, funded by the National Science Foundation.

The Eocene epoch, which lasted from roughly 56 to 34 million years ago, stands out as a period when this carbon burial mechanism was effectively switched off. Sea levels were at their highest, shelves were flooded, phosphate was efficiently buried in shallow sediments and the ocean was highly oxygenated. Without the feedback loop, carbon accumulated in the atmosphere and the planet remained warm.

Over geological time, the study proposes, the zone for carbon burial has narrowed as oxygen minimum ranges have deepened—a process that has progressively stabilized both atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide. The oscillations between carbon burial and atmospheric accumulation have grown more muted, making Earth’s climate system increasingly resilient.

Key Takeaways From the Study:

• Phosphate, an essential nutrient for marine life, acted as a hidden regulator of Earth’s carbon cycle for the last 60 million years — but how it plays this role exactly has not been fully understood.
• Sea level controlled how much phosphate was available in the open ocean, which determined how much carbon was buried in seafloor sediments and how much carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere.
• A sea-level “sweet spot” — roughly 10 to 40 meters above modern levels — maximized carbon burial for millions of years at a time, acting as a natural brake on warming and helping drive Earth’s transition to today’s cooler climate.

The research was conducted with collaborators at the University of Oxford (Rickaby and��) and the University of Copenhagen ()��and was supported by two National Science Foundation grants.

The new findings build on a body of research from Lu’s lab using the iodine-to-calcium proxy to reconstruct past ocean oxygen conditions. An earlier study, published in January in��Nature Geoscience, used the same technique to reveal that��—the exact reverse of today’s pattern—and that a planetary tipping point hundreds of millions of years ago flipped that distribution.

, the Jessie Page Heroy Professor and chair of the��, has been named associate dean for creativity, scholarship and research for the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). The two-year term went into effect on Wednesday, July 1.

Hoke succeeds , who will become interim chair of the .

Hoke brings more than 15 years of experience at the University to this role, along with a research record that spans mountain-building processes on four continents. As a geomorphologist and geochemist, he has authored or co-authored more than 70 publications and led or co-led grants totaling more than $1.3 million over the course of his career. His work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and Poland’s National Science Center, among others. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America.

“Greg brings an exceptional combination of research expertise, grant leadership and institutional knowledge to this role,” says A&S Dean Behzad Mortazavi. “His work understanding how landscapes, climate and tectonics interact over geologic time is critical in understanding forces affecting our planet today.”

Hoke joined the University as an assistant professor in 2009 and was promoted to associate professor in 2015 and professor in 2022. He has served as department chair of Earth and environmental sciences since 2021, overseeing the department’s academic and research programs. He earned a Ph.D. in geological sciences from Cornell University in 2006 and a bachelor’s degree in geology and geological oceanography from the University of Rhode Island.

In his new role, Hoke will work with faculty across A&S to increase grant funding, research expenditures and award nominations, and to support interdisciplinary collaboration across the College’s research enterprise.

“I’m excited to be in a position where I’ll be able to facilitate research and creative work across the College,” Hoke says. “It is my goal to learn every nook and cranny of research and scholarly work within the College such that every member of the faculty feels seen, heard and supported. I’m looking forward to helping implement the goals outlined in the academic strategic plan, especially the emphasis [on] collaboration across units within Arts and Sciences.”

“I thank Alan for his excellent service as ADR [associate dean of research] this year, and I look forward to working with Greg to advance our research mission,” Mortazavi says.

America turns 250 this year, and there’s no better way to celebrate the Semiquincentennial�� than by visiting places that document and bear witness to the nation’s history.

Upstate New York is rich with it—from Revolutionary War forts to those that tell the stories of the Indigenous nations, abolitionists and suffragists who shaped the nation alongside its founders.

University faculty shared their recommendations for historic destinations worth a visit, spanning a range of time periods, perspectives and driving distances from campus.

What follows is organized by distance, from sites under an hour away to those requiring a longer road trip (but still under four hours). Admission prices, hours and programming vary by location, so check ahead before you go—and consider making a day (or weekend) of it.

Under 1 Hour Away

, associate professor of Native American and Indigenous studies and associate professor of English in the , recommends visiting the Haudenosaunee Cultural Center right in Syracuse, which is focused on telling the story of the native peoples of central New York.

“It would allow visitors to better understand the composition and history of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) Confederacy and how it related to settler politics and cultural challenges to its identity leading up to the Revolutionary War,” he says.

Just an hour away in Rome, is the fort that , Distinguished Professor and chair of the in the , says is worth a visit.

“Initially built by the British during the French and Indian War, the fort was occupied and reconstructed by American troops in 1776,” he says. “The fort was successfully defended from an attack by British troops, Loyalists and Native Americans in August 1777.”

Stevens says a visit to the fort would also help visitors better understand the military and diplomatic relationship between the Haudenosaunee and colonial governments.

“This was an important site for maintaining the balance of power in the Northeast and would also be the site where two important treaties would set the tone for Native and settler relations before and after the Revolution,” he says.

Another spot not far from Syracuse that DeCorse recommends is Fort Ontario State Historic Site in Oswego.

“Fort Ontario was originally erected by the British in 1755, as one of several forts to protect the east end of Lake Ontario,” he says. “It was destroyed by American forces in 1778, but subsequently rebuilt by the British in 1782 and held until the determination of the US-Candian boundary in 1796.”

��

, professor of history and senior associate dean for academic affairs in Maxwell,�� says to consider visiting this national historic park just under an hour away in Seneca Falls. It’s on the site of the first convention devoted to women’s rights in 1848, which saw attendees that included Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

“The park includes a museum, monument and a reconstructed Wesleyan Chapel, the site of the meeting,” she says. “Be sure to be there for one of the talks by a park ranger. Also, plan to see a park ranger talk at �Ա𲹰�����.”

Another car ride under an hour away is the Oneida Community Mansion House, which was established in 1848. Faulkner says the Oneida Community was a successful Utopian experiment in communal living, eventually becoming Oneida Limited, the tableware company, after its dissolution in 1881.

“The mansion features regular tours, including occasional haunted or behind-the-scenes tours,” she says. “Founded by religious perfectionists, they extended their utopian experiment into the marriage relation itself. The Mansion House also offers rooms to stay in for a weekend getaway.”

and

Grant Reeher, a political science professor in Maxwell and senior research associate at the , says you should stop in Auburn to visit both the Harriet Tubman Home and the Seward House Museum.

Both the and the historic home of William Henry Seward, who served as governor of New York, a U.S. senator and secretary of state in the Lincoln and Johnson administrations, speak to the Civil War and the struggle to end slavery, Reeher says.

“One gets a sense of the contingency of the American experiment over the years, and the fact that individual people are essential in understanding the ongoing story of that experiment,” he says.

1-2 Hours Away��

If you plan to head west from Syracuse, Faulkner says you should consider this site in Rochester, which served as a home base for Anthony’s national leadership of the women’s rights movement. It’s also where she was arrested for registering and voting in 1872.

“The house offers tours and other programming,” says Faulkner. “Right down the street is a statue of Anthony and her fellow activist and Rochester-resident Frederick Douglass having tea.”

East from Syracuse, Stevens says this site explores the diplomatic relationship established between the Haudenosaunee and the British Crown before the American Revolution.

“It would help visitors better understand why choosing a side during the Revolution was so difficult for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy,” he says.

2-3 Hours Away

Stevens says there is no singular site in the area that offers visitors the opportunity to learn about the , the “the scorched-earth war of ethnic cleansing launched against the Haudenosaunee general populace in 1779 by orders of George Washington.”

Instead, there are dozens of road-side signs marking the sites of former Haudenosaunee communities destroyed by Sullivan and his fellow soldiers in the campaign, to tribes who sided with the British, and a victory monument at Newtown Battlefield State Historic Site in Elmira.

“This campaign was a key part of the legacy of the Revolutionary War for today’s Haudenosaunee communities,” says Stevens.

A three-hour drive from Syracuse will bring you to another of DeCorse’s recommendations: Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, which is maintained now by a nonprofit as a state park and museum.

“Although the United States was ceded the fort after independence, the British stayed until the determination of the US-Candian boundary in 1796,” says DeCorse. “Across the border is Old Fort Erie in Fort Erie, Ontario, built by the British in 1764 to defend Upper Canada during the American Revolution and the War of 1812.”

In 1779, Fort Niagara, held by the British, was where some 2,000 Haudenosaunee refugees—most of them women, children and the elderly—fled to escape the violence of the Sullivan-Clinton Campaign.

“Huddled outside the walls of the fort, many would die of exposure or hunger during the extremely cold winter of that year,”��Stevens says.

, political science professor and associate dean for research in Maxwell, says the drive to the Teddy Roosevelt Inaugural Site in Buffalo should be on your agenda.

Roosevelt is one of just four presidents who took the presidential oath of office outside of Washington, D.C. He was sworn in following the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901. Roosevelt was climbing the when he got word McKinley had been shot by an assassin at the Pan-America exposition in Buffalo. Roosevelt traveled to Buffalo, where McKinley died, and where he was sworn into office at the home of a friend by a federal judge.

“The site in Buffalo has history of both that event and Roosevelt’s life and presidency,” Gadarian says. “It’s small and doable in a few hours and close to some nice places in downtown Buffalo.”

��

Reeher says if you’re looking to witness the “range and the grandeur of the physical nation” a visit to the Niagara Falls State Park, two and a half hours away, is “a must.”

“It’s one of those places that whatever you’ve read and whatever pictures you’ve seen, you need to experience it firsthand to appreciate it,” he says. “It’s similar to the Grand Canyon or Mt. Rushmore in that way.”

3-4 Hours Away

and

DeCorse says these two historic sites, both situated on Lake Champlain, are the most impressive Revolutionary War period forts in New York. Both sites are under four hours from Syracuse by car and only about a half hour from each other.

Both were the sites of 18th-century French forts captured by the British in 1759, and DeCorse says they are a testament to the Anglo-French colonial rivalry for control of the region at the time.

“Fort Ticonderoga was captured on May 10, 1775, by the Green Mountain Boys, led by Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, and His Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point was captured days later,” he says. “These were the first American victories of the Revolutionary War and the cannon from these forts provided badly needed artillery for the fledgling American Army.”

Fort Ticonderoga’s historic site offers visitors living history demonstrations, reenactments and scholarly programs. Crown Point State Historic Site, which has the preserved ruins of two forts, has an interpretive center with displays of archaeological materials from the site.

If you’re in the area, DeCorse says there are numerous Revolutionary War historic sites, including and the on Lake George, just south of Ticonderoga.

If you’re looking for more stops on your travels recognizing American history, , associate professor in the , says the following sites, listed by region and distance to Syracuse, are worth a visit:��

• (Central New York; under 1 hour)
• (Central New York; under 1 hour)
• (Finger Lakes; under 1 hour)
• (Central New York; under 2 hours)
• in Rochester, NY (under 2 hours)
• (Greater Niagara; under 3 hours)
• (Buffalo; under 3 hours)
• (Buffalo; under 3 hours)
• (Greater Niagara; 3 hours)
• (Great Barrington, Massachussetts; 3 hours)
• (Springfield, Massachussetts; 3-4 hours)
• (Adirondacks; 4 hours)
• (Adirondacks; 4 hours)

Is there a site you plan to visit or recommend? Share it with us, or any photos from your trip (by emailing dbdwyer@syr.edu) and it could be featured in a follow up article.

In partnership with CNY Arts, “” delivered a record-breaking exhibition of 70 works of art from 29 faculty and staff members across 19 different University departments. The 53rd annual exhibition returned to Bird Library from May 28 to June 11.

This year, expanded the program’s official selections, giving more artists the chance to showcase their work at future exhibitions. As always, the finalists will be included in the finale exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art. New this year, CNY Arts created a category of recognition for runners-up. These artists will be invited to exhibit their work at Art in the Atrium, July 10-Aug. 2.

The University will once again be well-represented at the upcoming exhibitions with 14 works selected by the panel of judges assembled by CNY Arts.

The following finalists will be featured in the “On My Own Time” finale exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art, Oct. 3-Nov. 8:

• Kelley Parker, ������ Libraries, “The World Within” (photograph);
• Jessica Vangronigen, life sciences program in the College of Arts and Sciences, “Feelin’ Salty” (printmaking);
• Scott Samson, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, “Arctic Abstract” (photograph);
• Dana Cusano, Biology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences, “Panthera Leo” (drawing);
• Zachary Wilkie, Libraries, untitled painting;
• Autumn Wallingford, Division of Communications and Marketing, “Succession of Survival Mode”��(mixed media); and
• Taiwo Ositimehin, Strategic Initiatives and Innovation, “Adaralewa by Twinzy Adire” (fiber art).

The following runners-up will be featured in an exhibition at the Art in the Atrium gallery, 201 E. Washington St. in Syracuse, July 10-Aug. 2. The exhibition is free and open to the public on Fridays, from noon to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays and Sundays, from noon to 8 p.m.:

• Stuart Rotblat, Information Technology Services, untitled photograph;
• Molly Cavanaugh, Economics Department in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, “The Pride of Lady Eboshi” (fiber art);
• Donna Movsovich, Law Library, “Mountains and Sky”��(fiber art);
• Meghan Murphy, Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, “untitled piece no. 2868” (drawing);
• Margaret Voss, Falk College of Sport, “Good Morning Sunshine” (painting);
• James Beagle, materials distribution, untitled drawing; and
• Meghan Graham, Office of the Chief Operations Officer, “Aurora Borealis Scarf” (fiber art).

In addition to the judges’ selections, visitors to the “On My Own Time” exhibition had a chance to cast ballots for their favorite piece in the exhibition. This year, “Resilience,” a painting by Qingyi Yu from health services, was recognized for the most ballots cast in the People’s Choice category.

“������ was once again a leading employer with our ‘On My Own Time’ exhibition.��For 53 years we’ve partnered with CNY Arts, creating this wonderful opportunity for our faculty and staff to showcase their talents and to connect in meaningful ways as a community,” says Alex Dietrich,��interim chief human resources officer. “If you missed our original exhibition, I would encourage you to experience the amazing artistry of our colleagues who were selected to show their work at the upcoming event at Art in the Atrium gallery and the Everson Museum of Art.”

Kennedy King ’27 grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 28th congressional district represented by Judy Chu—the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress. This past spring, the rising senior in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs came full circle as an intern in Chu’s Capitol Hill office.

“It was the best news ever,” says King about first learning she would have the opportunity.�� “She really represents our district so well. She’s been a big inspiration to me and her career has really shaped some of my own aspirations in public service.”

Early on, King’s internship took an even greater personal dimension. Her grandmother has lived in the United States for 40 years but speaks limited English. At doctor’s appointments, family members come along to help, but the language gap doesn’t always close. “For instance, I don’t know the word for cataracts in Chinese, so we’re both just kind of confused,” says King.

That experience got King thinking about health care access for seniors with limited English proficiency—a common challenge in districts like Chu’s. During her internship, she began researching incentive structures like physician fee reimbursement programs that encourage doctors to serve in rural areas, and she wondered why a similar model couldn’t work for bilingual providers.

“If that incentivizes people to live in rural areas, why can’t we do the same thing for bilingual health care providers?” says King, who is majoring in anthropology and political science at Maxwell and art history in the College of Arts and Sciences. “It would encourage more of them to live in high-LEP (Limited English Proficiency) districts.”

She brought the idea to the office’s legislative aide covering Asian American and language access issues, and to the legislative director for health care.

“I came in bright-eyed and excited,” King says. Her legislative director liked the idea, but walked her through why broad health care legislation wasn’t a realistic near-term goal—and what a more achievable path forward might look like.

She narrowed the scope. Rather than pursuing new legislation, the proposal for her intern project now advises Chu to write an oversight letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services requesting data on language access gaps—laying the groundwork for a legislative push down the road.

The experience reshaped how King thinks about public service. Real change, she learned, rarely arrives all at once.

The daily pace of King’s internship, which wrapped up May 15, depended largely on the congressional calendar. When Congress was in session, she often fielded calls from constituents, wrote memos for Chu’s staff and conducted policy research. When Congress was in recess, she had more time to network and collaborate across the office.

Tashia Thomas Neal was born and raised in Syracuse. But despite supporting the city’s��South��Side for years, it��wasn’t��until she set foot on the soil at����to take pictures as part of the��Southside Stories project that she learned about the urban farm tucked in the neighborhood.

She says that moment of community discovery is one of the key strengths of the��Southside Stories, a community storytelling initiative that pairs Syracuse residents with professional photojournalists to document the people, places and programs enriching the neighborhood. The stories and images produced are then published��on��,��the��program’s����and website.

The program launched in spring 2025,��emerging��from��Southside Connections, a collaboration between ������’s����and 30 organizations across the city’s��South��Side.��Residents��are given��the technical skills to document and celebrate the��community,��and��give greater visibility to��the mutual��aid and everyday resilience happening in the neighborhood, which includes the historic 15th Ward.

For Thomas Neal, who was part of a recent cohort of residents trained through the project, the experience was gratifying.

“I’m gaining skills I can use for my own photography, even if I’m using my iPhone. I’m meeting new people in the group, and I’m also meeting people in the community I wouldn’t have met otherwise,” Thomas Neal says.

How It Works

, co-founder of��Southside Stories, director of the Engaged Humanities Network and associate professor and��Dean’s��Professor of��Community��Engagement in the College of Arts and Sciences, says building up the capacity for residents to tell the stories of their own neighborhood is incredibly important. Not just for communicating to audiences outside the neighborhood but for “telling the story of the community to the��community itself” as a way of building pride��of��place and recognizing the values and skills present.

Nordquist co-directs Southside Stories alongside co-founders Amy Toensing and Matt Moyer ’94, longtime photojournalists and documentary filmmakers who have worked for National Geographic for decades. Toensing previously was a faculty member at the��, while Moyer is currently an adjunct professor. Together they run��, working with��Newhouse graduate��Kayla Breen G’24.

Toensing and Moyer originally connected with Nordquist through a different Engaged Humanities Network collaboration with ������ Art Museum, theprogram. Together, the three��came up with��the model of training community members for the��Southside Stories project, which��invites cohorts of participants—from high school-age students to older adults—to��learn the basics of photography and visual storytelling.

The cohorts then pair with the photojournalists for field experiences to cover different stories in the neighborhood. Afterward, they review their work, critiquing it alongside the facilitators, and return to the field to get more images.

“What we’re doing is not only giving the foundation of understanding how composition and light and color and moment are going to influence an image and what it communicates; we’re also talking about the broader stories that exist, and then teaming up with them to give instruction and let them find their own story in this process,” Moyer says.

Toensing says discovery is an important part of the program as the cohort highlights the stories in the community.

“They’re getting outside of themselves, which is important for all of us, to leave our egos behind and become conduits for other people’s stories and to allow people to be seen,” she says.

What Participants Say

For Thomas Neal, the program has aligned with her professional work, but she says the storytelling project has helped her meet people who are doing work outside of her field and typical day-to-day.

“Being able to meet people who are doing great things and see the impact on other people in the community has been fantastic,” she says.

Over a dozen SU undergraduate and graduate students have been involved in projects associated with Southside Connections over the past two and a half years, and two—Destinyi Fernandez ’27 and Sandra Oduro G’28—have played significant roles in shaping the Southside Stories project as research assistants.

Fernandez is studying art photography in the����and serving as the undergraduate research assistant on the project. She��participated��in the Photography and Literacy��program in high school, learning from Moyer and Nordquist before she arrived at the University.��She says the experience with��Southside Stories��challenged��her��in new ways and��helped her gain valuable skills for her photography, pointing to when she took photos at Ze Mart and had to approach and��interview��people.

“That definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone, because as a photographer, I’m usually more of an observer,” she says. “This experience encouraged me to engage more directly with people through interviewing and storytelling, giving me guidance for communicating with people and conducting interviews.”

The experience has underscored that she doesn’t want to just produce a “pretty image.”

“I want it to have an impact,” Fernandez says. “I feel like I’ve learned so much from both [Southside Stories and the Photography and Literacy program] and how I can apply that to my academic life and my career moving forward.”

Why It Matters

So far, the program has published five stories on Salt, with half a dozen still in progress. Nordquist says as the program grows, he hopes different forms of storytelling will��ultimately join��the visual, documentary stories.

“Our��intent with��Southside Stories is to celebrate the people and the projects and the businesses and the organizations in��South��Side and the resiliency and the challenges, all of it,” Toensing says.

Ultimately, Nordquist��says the hope��is��the program can become a self-sustaining, neighborhood-run network of storytellers.

“Collective action follows collective storytelling,” he says. “They’re intertwined and inseparable. So if we want to make real, lasting improvement of the city, of the region and of the University, then we have to take storytelling seriously, and we have to respect the power of stories.”

The FIFA World Cup comes to North America for the first time since 1994, with the U.S., Canada and Mexico hosting the 2026 competition. From the economics of global sport to the politics of international competition, faculty experts can offer perspectives across multiple disciplines. All experts are available for print, broadcast and digital interviews.

For media assistance and interview coordination, contact��Keith Kobland via email at kkobland@syr.edu or by calling 315.415.8095.

Sport Economics and Analytics

Rodney Paul | rpaul01@syr.edu

is director of the sports analytics program and a professor in the Department of Sport Management in the David B. Falk College of Sport.

Paul is a sports economist with more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and extensive experience consulting for professional leagues and teams. He has been featured on NPR, Forbes and in CFO Magazine on topics ranging from TV rights deals to franchise finances.

Paul can discuss the economics of hosting, including revenue projections, infrastructure costs and whether host cities recoup their investments. He can also explore ticket pricing, broadcast rights and the financial windfall for FIFA and its sponsor brands. Paul is also available to discuss how increased U.S. viewership and a home tournament could accelerate the growth of MLS and professional soccer investment in North America.

Football, Film and African Culture

Vlad Dima | vdima@syr.edu

is a professor of African American studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dima is the author of “The Beautiful Skin: Football, Fantasy and Cinematic Bodies in Africa” (Michigan State University Press), a landmark examination of soccer’s cultural meaning across the African continent. His research spans francophone cinema, cultural studies and the politics of sport as spectacle. He was recently interviewed by the Los Angeles Times on soccer’s growing popularity in the United States.

Dima can discuss the importance of soccer as a cultural identity and what the tournament means for African nations and diaspora communities; how media representations of African and Global South players shape narratives of race and nationhood; and the tournament as soft power—how countries use the World Cup stage to project national identity on a global screen.

Geopolitics and International Security

Corri Zoli |��cbzoli@syr.edu

is an associate teaching professor of political science and a senior research scholar in global affairs and international security in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs | College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). Zoli is a scholar of international security, global conflict and the intersection of law and cross-cultural dynamics. Based in the Forensic and National Security Sciences Institute, Zoli’s interdisciplinary work addresses how international institutions navigate political tensions, a lens directly applicable to a tournament that brings together nations with competing global interests.

Zoli can speak about the World Cup as a geopolitical arena; how FIFA navigates relations with sanctioned states, contested territories and authoritarian hosts; what goes into security planning and counterterrorism logistics for a multi-city, multination tournament on U.S. soil; the diplomatic stakes when rival nations meet on the pitch; and what sport reveals about the limits of soft power.

As the United States prepares to mark its 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026, journalists covering the Semiquincentennial will find no shortage of angles—from celebration and patriotism to polarization, history and the legacies still unresolved. ������ has a deep bench of scholars ready to help reporters tell the full story.

Below is a reference guide to several����������faculty experts��and thought leaders��available on topics ranging from national identity to the democratic blueprint drawn by this land’s first��peoples.

For media��assistance��and interview coordination, contact��media@syr.edu.

How Has America Celebrated Its Birthday Before—and What Does Our Constitution Really Mean?

Carol Faulkner |��cfaulkne@syr.edu

is a professor of history in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

A specialist in 19th-century American history, constitutional history and social reform movements, Faulkner can offer a deep historical lens on how the United States has marked its major anniversaries—from the Centennial in 1876 to the Bicentennial in 1976—and what those celebrations reveal about the nation’s evolving sense of itself.

She can also speak to what the Constitution means as a living document and how its interpretation has shifted over time. Faulkner recently helped develop a free public course at the Maxwell School in conjunction with the 250th commemoration.

Can a Divided Nation Still Celebrate Together?

Shana Kushner Gadarian |��sgadaria@maxwell.syr.edu

is a professor and chair of political science in the Maxwell School.

A leading expert on American politics, political psychology and public opinion, Gadarian has spent much of her career studying how fear, polarization and partisanship shape the way Americans engage with shared institutions and national events.

As the country marks 250 years, she can address whether a deeply divided electorate can still find common ground in national celebration—and what the politics of patriotism look like in this moment.

The State of American Democracy at 250

Grant Reeher |��gpreeher@maxwell.syr.edu

is a professor of political science in the Maxwell School and a longtime observer of American political culture.

He can speak broadly to the health of U.S. democracy at this milestone, examining how the nation’s founding ideals are faring amid contemporary political pressures, what citizens expect from their government and how the meaning of democratic participation has evolved over 250 years.

Reeher is also a veteran media commentator on electoral politics and civic life.

The Blueprint America Forgot: Indigenous Roots of U.S. Democracy

Scott Stevens |��scsteven@syr.edu

is an associate professor and director of the Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice in the College of Arts and Sciences, with expertise in Indigenous literature, history and cultural studies.

As the nation celebrates its 250th birthday, Stevens can speak to the often-overlooked story of how the democratic traditions and governance structures of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy—among other First Peoples—provided a foundational blueprint for the framers of the U.S. Constitution.

His work challenges and enriches conventional narratives about American democracy’s origins.

Nostalgia, Media and the Moments That Unite Us

Robert Thompson |��rthompso@syr.edu��

is founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture and a Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture in the .

Dubbed a “pop culture ambassador” by the Associated Press, Thompson has been a go-to voice for hundreds of media outlets on how Americans process shared national experiences through television, film and popular media. For the 250th anniversary, he can speak to how the media will cover—and shape—the celebration, as well as the role nostalgia plays in national identity and whether big national moments still have the power to bring a fragmented country together.��

While most rising seniors are thinking about what lies ahead, Kenna Cummings ’27 is thinking about what lies beneath—the ice sheet in Greenland and a supervolcano in New Zealand, to be specific. Cummings, a geology major in the ��(A&S) has been named a 2026-27 Astronaut Scholar by the (ASF).

Founded by the Mercury 7 astronauts, the foundation awards scholarships to students in their junior or senior year who are pursuing a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) degree with intentions to pursue research or advance their field upon completion of their degrees. Astronaut Scholars are among the best and brightest minds in STEM who show initiative, creativity and excellence in their chosen field.

The Astronaut Scholarship provides funding of up to $15,000 toward educational expenses, a paid trip to the ASF Innovators Week and Gala in Houston in August and lifelong mentoring and engagement opportunities with astronauts, Astronaut Scholar alumni, industry leaders and the ASF.

Tapping the Planet’s Hidden Heat

Cummings, who was also named a Goldwater Scholar earlier this year, is currently wrapping up her semester of research in the Taupō Volcanic Zone (TVZ) on New Zealand’s North Island. There, she utilizes microscopy and geochemistry to study the subsurface magma system that both feeds eruptions and heats deep geothermal fluids.

“The TVZ is an incredible example of how active geothermal systems can be used for energy production as well as numerous direct uses, such as timber drying and greenhouse heating,” she says.

Cummings considers herself lucky to be able to undertake research at points around the world, such as Iceland and NewZealand, where some of the most innovative developments in geothermal energy are happening. She has studied the Greenland ice sheet remotely through the lab of , assistant professor of seismology in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In Greenland, Cummings studies what a system like the one in New Zealand looks like long after its heat source has moved on. Using seismology—mapping how seismic waves travel through the earth—she traces the path that ancient hotspot took and measures how much heat remains below the ice sheet.

“From this research, I’ve learned about the range of settings that can have heightened geothermal gradients without dramatic volcanic activity,” she says. “Understanding the many ways geothermal areas can be formed and studied will help me scale innovative solutions for settings across the U.S.”

Bridging Academia and Industry

Cummings’ long-term goal is to run a research lab inside an industry geothermal company.

“I am very passionate about clear communication between academia and industry, since academic research is only made applicable through commercial viability,” she says. “To me, the line between academic research and commercial application is done right when both sectors are working to their strengths, supporting each other and building toward the same end goal that will have positive impacts on the public at large.”

Cummings says that her selection as an Astronaut Scholar is an incredible honor that comes with life-changing financial support and academic and career opportunities.

“The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation has a robust alumni network that provides opportunities to learn about various fields of science and industry,” she says. “I plan to take advantage of mentorship opportunities within the ASF alumni network as well as present my research at the Innovator’s Symposium. I know this scholarship will open doors for me in both grad school and career applications. I am grateful for the numerous ways becoming an Astronaut Scholar has already begun to change the trajectory of my future research career.”

Created in 1984, ASF awarded its first seven scholarships in honor of the Mercury 7 astronauts—Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton. Seven students received $1,000 scholarships. Since its inception, the ASF has awarded more than $10 million to more than 950 college students.

As a university partner of the ASF, ������ can nominate two students for the Astronaut Scholarship each year. Interested students should contact (CFSA) for information on the nomination process (cfsa@syr.edu; 315.443.2759). More information on the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation can be .

Inside every human cell, a tiny structure called a lysosome acts like a recycling center, breaking down toxic waste, clearing damaged proteins and helping keep the cell functioning properly.

When that recycling center stops working because the lysosome loses the acidic conditions it needs to function, the consequences ripple outward. Waste builds up, proteins accumulate and eventually the cell’s internal systems begin to break down. This type of dysfunction is commonly associated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s.

Newly published research from , assistant professor of biomedical and chemical engineering in the , suggests that nanoscopic particles delivered into the body could help restore the recycling function, and in doing so, slow disease progression at its cellular root.

Instead of just treating symptoms, Zeng’s novel approach uses acidic nanoparticles to restore lysosomal function and repair the cell’s built-in cleanup system. The results of her study, , demonstrate this strategy in both cell and animal models of Parkinson’s disease.

“Rather than simply trying to block damage after it occurs, this approach aims to restore the cell’s own ability to clear toxic material and maintain homeostasis,” Zeng says. “We think this makes it especially promising, because it could be adapted to other diseases in which harmful proteins build up and the cell’s recycling system isn’t working properly.”

The study, published in April, was carried out in collaboration with assistant professor and his lab in the ’ Department of Biology. , part of the , work closely together to better understand the underlying disease mechanisms for conditions including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.

How the Research Works

Zeng focuses on developing tools to deliver therapies more precisely within the body. One such tool is nanoparticles—tiny spherical structures formed from long, flexible polymer chains.

How small exactly is nanosized? Ten to the power of minus nine, tinier than a cell itself.

“Think of them like long, soft chains that tangle together and eventually form a tiny ball,” she says. “That’s what makes a nanoparticle. Because they’re so small, cells can take them in pretty easily.”

Zeng is applying this nanoparticle-based strategy across multiple disease areas, including metabolic disorders and Parkinson’s disease, with a focus on addressing dysfunction at the cellular level—both to better understand early changes and to deliver more precise, effective treatments.

In Parkinson’s, impaired lysosomal function and toxic protein buildup contribute to neuronal damage. Lysosomes require an acidic environment to function, similar to how stomach acid helps break down food. In disease, this acidity is reduced and the “recycling center” function stops working, allowing waste to accumulate.

“You can think of it like stomach acid—helping break things down,” Zeng says. “Lysosomes need to stay very acidic to work properly. Our nanoparticles go into the cell, break apart, and release acid, which helps restore that environment. That’s how they get the lysosomes working again.”

Her newly published study demonstrated how restoring the pH environment in lysosomes reduced toxic protein aggregation, a hallmark of Parkinson’s, in both cell and animal models, thereby protecting the brain cells responsible for movement that are progressively lost during the disease.

Zeng’s work also suggests that lysosomal dysfunction may be an early indicator of disease, observed across conditions ranging from Parkinson’s to metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.

“When lysosomes start to lose function and you’re no longer able to clear unwanted material, it can signal that harmful processes are beginning to build up,” Zeng says. “It may serve as an early warning sign.”

For that reason, Zeng and Lo are also working to develop biomarkers that can detect changes in lysosomal pH at early stages.

What’s Next

The next step Zeng is taking with her nanoparticle research is tackling how to make them better at reaching the brain, where they’re needed.

The brain has a built-in security system called the blood-brain barrier, which helps protect the organ from harmful substances but also blocks most medicines from getting through. That means even good treatments may never reach the place they are needed to work.

To address this, Zeng is designing nanoparticles with features that can be recognized by receptors at the barrier, allowing more efficient transport into the brain.

“If you inject a drug, often less than 1% actually makes it into the brain,” Zeng says. “If we can improve how well it gets across the blood-brain barrier—even by several fold—it could make treatments much more effective, or allow us to use much lower doses. That’s why this step is so important.”

Looking ahead, Zeng is working to further validate and refine this approach with an eye toward potential clinical translation.

“There are already a few FDA-approved nanoparticle-based drugs and vaccines, mainly in cancer and infectious diseases, but not yet for neurodegenerative conditions,” she says. “At this stage, we are focused on testing in mouse models and building the foundation for future studies in larger animal models.”

She shares adjacent lab space with Lo, her close collaborator, and together they pursue interdisciplinary research to develop new tools and therapies for inflammatory, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.

Students interested in joining the lab are encouraged to reach out.

“We welcome inquiries from motivated students who are interested in our work,” Zeng says.