USC Dornsife News Briefs highlight faculty research studies, newly published books, awards, grants and other news showcasing faculty members’ work at USC Dornsife. All USC Dornsife faculty are eligible to submit content.
(The diverse opinions expressed in News Briefs do not necessarily represent the views of USC Dornsife administration or USC.)
Joan Flores-Villalobos, assistant professor of history, was awarded the Wesley-Logan Prize in African Diaspora History for her book, The Silver Women: How Black Women’s Labor Made the Panama Canal (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023). The annual award is jointly sponsored by the American Historical Association and the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, recognizing outstanding work in African diaspora history. Flores-Villalobos’ book explores the role of Black West Indian women in constructing the Panama Canal, revealing their critical role in U.S. imperial expansion and migration networks.
Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies, professor of history and director of the USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, has received the 2024 Grimme Online Award from the Grimme Institute, which honors high-quality, online journalism. Gruner was honored for his work on the #LastSeen Image Atlas, which collects and contextualizes photographs of individuals deported from Nazi Germany.
Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor of English, has been awarded the 2024 Kirkus Prize for Fiction for his novel James. Established in 2014, the Kirkus Prize recognizes exceptional works in literature, with winners in each category receiving $50,000. With James, Everett reimagines Mark Twain’s classic Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the character Jim’s perspective.
Nobel laureate cites pioneering work by Helen Berman of quantitative and computational biology as foundational to the research that garnered the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Thomas Chaney, professor of economics, has been elected to the 2024 class of Fellows of the Econometric Society, recognizing his significant contributions to economic theory through the application of statistical and mathematical tools. The society, an international body advancing econometric practices, confers this lifetime honor on scholars with notable publications that address key economic problems. Fellows play a crucial role in guiding the society’s direction and electing its leadership, reflecting their influence and authority within the field.
USC Dornsife postdoctoral researcher Thomas Day has been selected as a recipient of the prestigious Life Sciences Research Foundation (LSRF) Fellowship. The award provides three years of funding to support his work, which seeks to understand how feedback between cell interactions and emergent multicellular states shape the ecology of patchy marine environments.
Yunqiu Kelly Luo, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, has been named a 2024 Early Career Research Program awardee by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Luo is one of 91 researchers across the country selected for this distinction, which comes with a five-year research grant to support her innovative work in experimental condensed matter physics. The DOE awarded a total of $138 million to all recipients in this year’s program.
Steven Lopez, professor of psychology and social work, received the 2025 James S. Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award for Transformative Scholarship from the Association for Psychological Science. The award recognizes his groundbreaking research on cultural and diversity issues, particularly in improving mental health care for marginalized communities. Lopez’s work advances understanding of sociocultural influences on mental illness and provides vital models for reducing disparities in care. His contributions align with the award’s mission to honor research that enhances knowledge of racial and ethnic diversity, equity and inclusion.
Mark Irwin, professor of English, has been awarded the Juniper Prize for Poetry for his forthcoming collection,Once When Green (University of Massachusetts Press, 2025). The collection explores themes of mortality and the impact of global warming, examining how pollution affects humans, animals and plant life. The Juniper Prize, awarded annually to one previously published author, recognizes original poetic manuscripts and includes a $1,000 prize upon publication.
