USC Dornsife News Briefs

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.

Elda Maria Roman, associate professor of English, has been awarded the 2024 Gulf Coast Prize in Nonfiction for her essay “Qualifying Exams.” The work offers a nuanced exploration of personal and systemic struggles, artfully weaving together themes of self-discipline and societal expectations. The prize includes a $1,500 award and publication in Gulf Coast, a literature and fine arts journal housed at the University of Houston’s English department.

Alexandra Brewer, assistant professor of sociology, was awarded the Donald W. Light Article Award from the American Sociological Association for “Painful Feelings: Opioids as Tools for Avoiding Emotional Labor in Hospital Work,” published in June 2023 in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. The award is given in alternate years to a book or journal article published in the preceding two years that employs the concepts and methods of medical sociology to an applied issue or problem of significance. Brewer’s article, based on a 21-month hospital ethnography, examines how opioids are used to manage clinician emotional labor and shape patient care and workplace dynamics.

Hajar Yazdiha, assistant professor of sociology, was awarded the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book for The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press, 2023). Granted by the American Sociological Association, the award honors the best books in the field of cultural sociology that are notable for their originality, intellectual rigor and contribution to the discipline. Yazdiha’s work critically examines how revisionist appropriation of civil rights memory by various political groups distorts historical understanding and perpetuates racial inequality.

Sunyoung Park, associate professor of East Asian languages and cultures and gender and sexuality studies, received a 2024 Uplifter Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in Arts (IAFA) Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Caucus. The honor recognizes Park’s commitment to advancing the goals and initiatives of the BIPOC Caucus.