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.)
Percival Everett, Distinguished Professor of English, has been named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential People of 2025, and award that, according to Time, focuses “on the individuals who are transforming the world.” Of Everett’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel James, writer and director Cord Jefferson wrote for Time: “Many writers are afraid to insert levity in stories of tragedy, particularly stories of violent prejudice. But James, which won the National Book Award, shows that to omit joy is to do a disservice to the people who endured those tragedies.” (Jefferson won the Academy Award for his screenplay of American Fiction, which he adapted from Everett’s book Erasure.)
Anna Krylov, professor of chemistry, has received the 2025 Leadership Award from Heterodox Academy. In awarding Krylov, who moderates the Heterodox STEM community, the organization cited her “fierce advocacy of open inquiry, viewpoint diversity, and merit-based excellence in science.”
Suzanne Hudson, professor of art history and fine arts, has been named a 2025–26 Getty Scholar by the Getty Research Institute. She will join an international cohort of scholars in residence at the Getty Center and Getty Villa in Los Angeles, exploring the theme of “Repair.” Her project, Better for the Making: Art, Therapy, Process, examines the history, theory, and conventions of painting as they developed within pedagogical spaces shaped by care work and medical or psychological services.
Deisy Del Real, assistant professor of sociology, was awarded the RC31 Best Scholarly Article Award from the International Sociological Association (ISA) for her article “The Impact of States' Legal Structures and Bureaucracies on Immigrant Legalization and Livelihoods,” published in January 2024 in International Migration Review. Established in 2016 by the ISA’s Research Committee on the Sociology of Migration (RC31), the award honors outstanding research articles that advance the field of migration studies. Del Real’s article examines how legal and bureaucratic structures shape immigrant integration and economic stability.
Daniel Lidar, professor of electrical and computer engineering, chemistry, and physics and astronomy, has been elected a Member of the National Academy of Artificial Intelligence. The academy recognized Lidar, who holds the Viterbi Professorship in Engineering, for his “outstanding academic contributions and pioneering research achievements in the field of artificial intelligence.” Lidar, who was elected a Fellow of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance and a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association last year, was also listed as a lifetime highly ranked scholar – No. 2 in quantum computing worldwide – by ScholarGPS
Richard Brutchey, professor of chemistry, has been named a 2025 recipient of the Science Teaching and Research (STAR) Award by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA). The award recognizes Brutchey for his pioneering work in materials synthesis and for creating hands-on STEM research opportunities for community college students. The RCSA cited Brutchey’s summer internship program with Cerritos Community College, which launched through his original Cottrell Scholar Award from the RCSA to provide mentorship and classroom-to-lab training for first-generation students. The RCSA champions research in the physical sciences at U.S. and Canadian institutions while cultivating communities of early career researchers.
Environment and Sustainability and the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future (CPF), both based at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, hosted the sixth annual Climate Forward conference on April 3.
Scientists including USC Dornsife cosmologist Vera Gluscevic use the clearest images yet of the universe in its infancy to reveal new insights into dark matter.
