Current Cohort

Principal Investigators: Yixuan (Janice) Zhang and Meredith Kier

Teachers consistently identify assessing students’ mathematical reasoning during collaboration as one of their greatest challenges. This project will design and develop an AI-powered assessment system that analyzes student dialogue, identifies strengths and misconceptions, and suggests instructional moves. By making students' reasoning visible, the proposed system will enable teachers to provide timely, personalized feedback that would otherwise be impossible to deliver at scale.

PIs: Ryan Musto and Eric Brown

The Robert M. Gates initiative in American Statecraft will establish a center for intergenerational learning and policy-relevant research on the complex foreign policy challenges facing the United States and the world in the 21st century. A partnership with the Gates Global Policy Center, the Gates Initiative will cultivate the next generation of national security leaders who are equipped to navigate our complex world. It conducts multi-disciplinary research on world affairs, international history, and national security.

PIs: Katelynn Perrault Uptmor and Isabelle R. Taylor

This project sits at the intersection of biochemistry, advanced analytical detection, and data science by tackling a globally urgent health challenge: antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This opportunistic pathogen, which is a leading cause of hospital-borne respiratory illnesses, disproportionately impacts vulnerable populations worldwide and remains a critical driver of health disparities due to limited treatment options and delayed detection. By integrating controlled microbiological experiments, state-of-the-art nontargeted chemical analysis, and machine-learning-driven interpretation, our interdisciplinary team will generate fundamentally new insight into the chemical signatures associated with microbial pathogenesis.

PIs:  Jeffrey Kaplow and Saskia Mordijck

This project bridges national security and nuclear energy by pairing an international security scholar with expertise in nuclear weapons policy with an internationally recognized nuclear fusion scientist. As fusion energy advances from theoretical promise toward commercial reality, its national security implications remain largely unexamined. The project will develop a novel risk assessment framework for evaluating proliferation pathways across fusion technologies, convene an interdisciplinary expert workshop, and produce policy recommendations for U.S. and international stakeholders.

PIs: Kunwar K. Singh and Ariel BenYishay

This project establishes a harmonized, open-access Global Crop Database that consolidates and standardizes survey-based crop data through a community-driven consortium. Pilot implementations in Kenya and Zambia will demonstrate the technical feasibility, quality control, and analytical value of this approach.

PIs: Julius Odhiambo and Yuming Sun

Current TB cascade models assume stationary populations; this project develops a mobility-sensitive framework to respond to the on-the-ground realities of TB care in Kenya. Findings will be co-interpreted with Community Health Partners–Kenya and county TB leadership, translated into a concise recommendations brief that aligns with county planning cycles to facilitate prompt uptake. 

PIs: Jennifer Kahn, Harmony Dalgleish, and Joshua Puzey

Investigates how plastic mulching practices affect microplastic contamination in taro, a staple food crop across the Pacific Islands to better understand how microplastics leach into food systems. Building on five years of collaboration with indigenous farmers in Rurutu (French Polynesia), the project compares microplastic accumulation across taro cultivars and farming practices, expands fieldwork to Rarotonga (Cook Islands), and documents taro genetic diversity. The team brings together archaeological, biological, and ecological methods with strong community partnerships.

Group Members: Daniel Cristol, James Kaste, Mara Dicenta, Randolph Chambers, Dominick Cirruzi and Juan Cajigas Rotundo

Beavers are recolonizing Virginia waterways after centuries of absence, reshaping ecosystems and communities in the process. This project investigates the ecological, geological, and social implications of beaver return, examining how their dam-building alters hydrology, sediment transport, and biodiversity while also affecting human land use and cultural relationships with wildlife. The interdisciplinary team spans biology, geology, environmental science, anthropology, and American studies.

Group Members: Amy Limoncelli, Meaghan Stiman, Eun A Jo, Fernando Galeana Rodriguez

Examines how ideas of global citizenship shape engagement with international organizations, exploring the relationship between civic identity and multilateral institutional participation. The project draws on history, government, and sociology to investigate how states and citizens negotiate interactions with international bodies in an era of rising nationalism and institutional contestation.

Group Members: Ran Yang, Elizabeth Mead, Camille Andrews, Jon Pineda, Harmony Dalgleish, Monica Seger and Jonah Goldwater

An interdisciplinary inquiry into whether a 333-year-old institution can build something designed to last another hundred. Drawing on physics, art, literature, biology, philosophy, Italian studies, and libraries, seven scholars explore what remains irreplaceably human in a post-labor world — and what it means to plant a seed for a future we will never see.