Experts Guide

Farhadi is an expert on violent extremism, religion and conflict, peacebuilding, geopolitics and geoeconomics, with a particular emphasis on the Great Power Competition in the "Silk Road" region of Central and South Asia.

Durham is an expert on African American media and culture, hip hop culture, social inequality, women's media and activism and popular culture and entertainment media.

McCormick researches galaxy evolution and interstellar medium. He also studies dust and molecular material blown out of nearby galaxies either by star formation or by the disruptive activity of a supermassive black hole. He uses space-based and ground-based infrared observations to study "galactic winds."

Friedman studies collaborative learning, developing innovative teaching tools based on visualization theories and exploring new knowledge through statistical and visualization techniques. His current projects include an NSF-suppoprted Visual Peer Review Dashboard, the application of Peirce's sign theory through the lens of AI and studies in art and visual communication.

Berish studies the relationship between musical expression and the social experience of space and place. Broader research interests include topics in jazz and American popular music, American culture of the 1930s and ’40s, jazz and civil rights, analysis of popular music and the role of place and mobility in American historical experience.

Dixon studies people-plant interactions, past and present. As an ethnobotanist and medical anthropologist, her research interests include human-plant coevolution, landscape reconstruction and the economic and medicinal uses of plants. She can discuss Pacific island cultures, ethnopharmacology and death penalty appeals.

Coy's research focuses on relationships and partners’ behavior influence each other in romantic relationships. He also studies environmental behavior and person-pet interactions, and can discuss topics relating to dating and marriage.

Jackson's research focuses on sociocultural and historical anthropology; identity and representation; social construction of race, class, gender and ethnicity; heritage resource management; American, African American and African diaspora culture; ethnographic research methods; United States, and the Caribbean. She founded the The Living Heritage Institute in 2023 as a vehicle for expanding the scope of contemporary heritage work that has been conducted at the USF Heritage Research Lab since 2006.

Gupta explores how writing technologies — especially generative AI — shape writers, genres and society. His research and teaching focus on generative AI, coding literacy, human-computer interaction, user experience design and mixed-methods inquiry.

Germa is an expert in volcanology, igneous petrology and geochemistry. Her research focuses on the long-term evolution of volcanic fields using radiometric dating methods, igneous petrology along with whole-rock and mineral major and trace elements geochemistry, and geomorphology.

Dixon is director of the Geospatial Analytics Lab and executive director of the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience at USF. Her research includes development of a web-based application that gathers crowdsourced data in coastal communities to identify flood risks and inform emergency managers and policy, and development and application of tools and systems for modeling and managing land-water interfaces in the context of extreme weather events and climate change.

Baker's research focuses on the use of nature as an important source of new pharmaceuticals. Compounds that marine invertebrates such as sponges, corals and mollusks develop for their own defenses can be used as human antiviral agents (AIDS, Herpes), antineoplastic agents (cancer) or other pharmaceuticals. In collaboration with pharmacologists, Baker and his team screen new isolates in assays that will identify their potential as drugs.

Kamp can discuss the Tampa Bay economy, microeconomics, information economics, tariffs and trade, industrial organization and predatory pricing in retail, housing and other sectors.

Gemmel is an integrative biologist whose interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of biology and physics. He is interested in the role of animal-fluid interactions in the marine environment and how they govern biological factors such as predator-prey interactions as well as large-scale ecosystem processes and evolutionary relationships.

Turnbull's research interests focus on social change, political sociology and qualitative methodology. He has conducted research on the use of gender quotas to improve representational equality in the global South and can discuss elections in the developing world. During Fulbright-funded fieldwork to India, he gathered interviews from city councilors in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Vasquez’s research and teaching specializations lie in the areas of digital media language, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics and pragmatics. She also studies the language of online consumer reviews on sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp, Amazon and Airbnb.

Yacovazzi's research focuses on the intersection of women’s work, religion and consumerism.

Paula-Davies is an expert in translation and interpretation of English-to-Portuguese and Portuguese-to-English and teaches English Speakers of Other Languages.

Connor is an expert on volcanos whose research focuses on modeling volcanic processes, probabilistic forecasts of volcanic activity heat and mass transfer of volcanoes.

Jones studies regional economics, tariffs and trade, housing and cost of living and financial consulting.

Meindl studies regional geography, water management and environmental policy. He can also discuss environmental management — particularly the gap between science and policy in water resources such as springs, lakes, rivers and wetlands.

Wells is an environmental anthropologist with an interdisciplinary background in the social and natural sciences. His research emphasizes environmental pollution, brownfields challenges, land use legacies, sustainable and equitable development, water/wastewater management and science-policy interactions.

Ruva's research interests include psychology and law, with a focus on applying principles of memory, social perception and group decision-making to the area of jury decision-making.

Smith's research on occupational health psychology focuses on employees' health behaviors (e.g., sleep), relationships (e.g., workplace support, work-family), and long-term health (e.g., chronic conditions), including for high-risk populations. This work is pointed at the larger question: What are the biggest threats to modern workers aiming to live healthy, fulfilling, long lives, and how can we move toward effective solutions?

Lende is an expert in biocultural medical anthropology, and his research has focused on substance use and abuse, neuroanthropology, behavioral health, stress, journalism and social media, cybersecurity, public and applied anthropology and interventions in behavioral health.

Paulson is well-versed in Florida politics, having spent several decades teaching and studying the subject. As a Minnesota native, he can also speak to issues facing the state and has studied U.S. elections and political violence.

Arbesú is a scholar of medieval and Golden Age Spanish literature. His research focuses on medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, codicology, palaeography and editorial practices. In the field of Florida studies, Arbesú has discovered several important manuscripts, including the most complete account of the conquest of Florida.

Diamond's research focuses on the physiology of behavior, the psychology of learning, the neurobiology of memory and the disturbance of the brain and behavior by stress. He is a leading expert on the cognitive and neurobiological reasons behind why normal, loving parents and caregivers unintentionally and unknowingly leave children unattended in cars.

Himmelgreen is an expert in biological and medical anthropology whose research focuses on food insecurity and hunger, maternal and child health, nutritional assessment, child growth and development, obesity and chronic disease, hypertension and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Johnson is a historian of the twentieth century United States, with an emphasis on politics and culture since World War II, the history of gender and sexuality and LGBT history.

Ponton is a social theorist and historian of Afro-America and the 20th Century United States. His research on segregation utilizes Afropessimism to destabilize our understanding of change, time and redemption in the singular moment of black suffering.

Tanasi is Director of the Institute for Digital Exploration at USF. His research focuses is on classical archaeology with a focus on ceramic studies in the central Mediterranean from prehistory to the end of the Roman empire. He applies 3D Digital Imaging techniques for the documentation, interpretation and global dissemination of endangered, inaccessible or neglected archaeological heritage with projects in Sicily and Florida.

Bowen is an expert in social media platforms and trends, public relations and crisis management, social learning and parasocial relationships, writing and ethics.

Cassill researches animal behaviors, including the “triggers” of behavior including survival by foraging, cooperation, sharing, altruism, competition, stealing, murder, and predation. Other key focus areas include reproductive behaviors, maternal investment strategies, ecology and evolution, conservation biology and lifetime replacement fitness.

Leon-Boys' research and teaching interests are in critical media and cultural studies. She can discuss Disney, popular culture, girlhood studies and children's media.

Herndl's research focuses on feminist theory, American literature, medicine and disability studies. She is interested in the ways that a medicalized view of the body shapes not just our perceptions of other peoples’ bodies, but of our own.

Mahoney is a cultural and linguistic anthropologist interested in issues of indigeneity, heritage and economic development in East Africa and the United States. He has studied art vendors on the Kenyan coast, farmers experimenting with new agricultural techniques in Eastern Kenya, refugees in Tampa and indigenous peoples in New Hampshire, seeking to frame research participants as knowledgeable sources of crucial information.

Smoak studies soil carbon accumulation rates in coastal wetlands as indicators of long-term ecosystem stability and how climate change, rising sea level and hurricanes impact coastal wetland ecosystems. He is part of the Initiative on Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (iCAR), which uses research and education to provide the understanding and ideas needed to make critical decisions regarding changing and vulnerable coastlines.

Rohrer's research focuses on memory -- research concerns memory, including memory retrieval in both healthy people and various patient populations. His current line of research examines and assesses various learning strategies with the aim of identifying pedagogical techniques that improve students’ long-term retention of information learned in school, including math topics.

Verona is co-director of the Center for Justice Research and Policy at the University of South Florida, and and affiliate in USF's Department of Criminology. She studies personality disorders, externalizing and antisocial behaviors and self- and other-directed violence. Her recent research has focused on treatment implementation and prevention services adapted to field settings. Her lab applies science to understand individual and contextual routes to externalizing behaviors and criminal legal involvement and to uncover intersections between mental health and criminal justice system involvement.

Turos' research focuses on the synthesis and evaluation of new antibacterial and anticancer agents, as well as development of nanoparticle polymers as drug delivery vehicles and biomedical plastics.

Benton is an expert on state and local government politics, government finances and fiscal behavior and welfare and housing policy.

Manolaraki's research focuses on Greek and Roman antiquity, world mythology, ancient natural history, ancient leadership models and sound and hearing in antiquity.

Aranda is director of the Im/migrant Well-Being Research Center. Her research focuses on migrants' emotional well-being and how they adapt to challenges posed by legal status and adaptation in a new place.

Miller's research focuses on human biology, immune function, maternal and infant health, breastfeeding and maternal iron deficiency.

Strom has published on urban development and affordable housing issues in such journals as the Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, and Housing Policy Debates. She is the author of two books, Building the New Berlin: The Politics of Urban Development in Germany's Capital (Lexington Books 2001) and The Urban Politics Reader (Routledge 2007). Strom is also interested in tourism and how it shapes our cities. She has been active in carrying out assessments and evaluations for local governments and community-based organizations.

Eisenberg brings 30 years of experience at USF and strong ties within Tampa Bay to lead the Office of University Community Partnerships. Eisenberg works to support the university’s position as a transformational metropolitan research university in collaboration with its communities to fulfill USF’s strategic goal in being a significant social and economic engine by creating robust partnerships.

Kimmerle is a forensic anthropologist whose research focuses on aging, growth and development as it is applied to facial recognition, human identification, demography and trauma analysis. She is executive director of the Florida Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science.

Linkous directs the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program. Her research focuses on land use planning and growth management, along with issues related to fiscal and legal instruments in land policy with an emphasis on market-based tools, institutional issues in land governance, the urban/rural interface, agricultural land policy and land use and transportation.

Hao is an environmental sociologist who can discuss public opinion and environmental behavior, renewable energy, electric vehicle adoption trends, the economic impacts of carbon emissions and social trust as it relates to climate and environmental topics.

Potts' research focuses on religio-cultural competence, particularly in the areas of health, business and religion. He examines virtuous leadership and the importance of empathy and active listening while striving to engage respectfully with others' religious and cultural backgrounds.

Nolas studies green energy technology, thermoelectric heat-to-electrical conversion and refrigeration, very low thermal conductivity, materials for unique technological applications and renewable energy. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science and the American Physical Society.

Ben-Herut's research interests include premodern religious literature in the Kannada language, South Asian bhakti (devotional) traditions, translation in South Asia and programming in Digital Humanities. He can discuss Hinduism, India, South Asian religions, mythology and sainthood.

Thompson studies volcanic earthquake swarms, tremor and debris flows, discrete volcanic-seismic signals and rainfall-induced dome collapses.

Alexopoulos is an expert in Russian and Soviet politics and history, U.S.-Russian relations, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and authoritarianism and political violence in Europe.

McColm's research focuses on logic and theoretical computer science; probabilistic methods; discrete and computational geometry; including mathematical crystallography and nanostructure design; mathematics in art; mathematics education and philosophy.

O'Leary is an anthropologist and scholar of the human dimensions of water. She leads CRESCENDO (Communicating Research Expansively through Sonification and Community-Engaged Neuroaesthetic Data-literacy Opportunities), an innovative interdisciplinary project that reimagines how environmental data is communicated. CRESCENDO translates complex data from critical issues like harmful algal blooms and red tide into immersive experiences that bridge the gap between scientific research and public understanding.

Sellers is a published author who can discuss poetry, hybrid and experimental writing, creativity, teaching creative writing and face blindness.

Castaneda is an immigration expert whose research focuses on critical border studies, legal anthropology, medical anthropology, migration, migrant health, citizenship and the US/Mexico border.

Huang's research focuses on information and library science, bioinformatics, and information and learning technology. He can also discuss data management, data governance, data analytics, bioinformatics, genomics, digital assets management, learning science and blockchain application.

Dungrawala's research focuses on DNA replication, its role in causing cancer and how this understanding can lead to cancer prevention and treatment.

Andrews' research focuses on topics in health information behaviors and communication, standards and controlled terminologies and various topics in library and information science. He has been an investigator on several federally-funded grants (NIH, DoD, AHRQ, CDC), and he is co-editor of the first book on Clinical Research Informatics.

Cavendish's research focuses on the intersection of religion, community and social change. He has examined the influence of Christian base communities on democratization in Latin America and the role of U.S. religious congregations in social action, anti-drug initiatives and the incorporation of new immigrant communities in American society.

Leahy's research focuses on the discovery of new drug candidates with fully optimized pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics parameters. His lab is involved in the synthesis and optimization of small molecule leads in a number of therapeutic areas as well as the pursuit of novel synthetic methodology.

Goldenberg's research focuses on psychological experiences associated with being a woman. To this end, she has conducted extensive research examining the causes and consequences of objectification of women. One approach to these questions is to apply terror management theory, which takes an existential perspective on human motivation.

Applequist's research focuses on advertising and patient-centered health communication, primarily pharmaceutical advertising and messaging effectiveness, investigating patient responses through innovative analytical approaches.

Collins is an expert on hurricanes, tropical cyclones, proposed changes to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale to account for rain and flooding and human behavior relating to hurricane evacuation. She is also interested in the interaction between large scale climatic patterns such as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Madden–Julian Oscillation and seasonal patterns of tropical cyclone activity in multiple oceanic basins.

O’Brien’s research focuses on the fundamental mechanisms behind perception, attention and decision-making in healthy adults and in changes to these systems during normal and abnormal aging. She is part of teams that have received more than $68 million in grant funding to study Alzheimer's disease in older adults.

McCracken's research focuses on how power, language, gender and sexuality are intertwined. She completed a Fulbright Specialist Project in collaboration with the New Zealand Prostitutes' Collective to investigate the presence of violence and trafficking in the sex industry in a country where prostitution is decriminalized. She has conducted trainings for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-supported organizations, public defenders, human trafficking coalitions and non-profit organizations.

Ivey studies red tide, harmful algal blooms, water quality and microplastics and the use of a model to estimate the underwater light field through remote sensing of ocean color.

Braunmiller studies earthquake source mechanisms and mechanics, regional and global tectonics, earth structure and composition from passive seismology and fault interaction.

McBrien studies international migration and refugee resettlement, families affected by war and global refugee population growth -- which rose from 9.2 million in 2004 to 35.3 million in 2022.

Fleming is the author of four books of fiction and is an expert in creative and fiction writing.

Parkinson's research lab uses genomic techniques to examine the ecology and evolution of coral-algal symbioses and involves diving on reefs in the field, maintaining coral and algal cultures to experiment with in the laboratory, and translating findings into guidance for coral restoration and conservation practitioners in Florida and beyond.

Skvoretz's research focuses on social network analysis, social inequality, social mobility, status expectation states and participation in teams and small groups.

Arthur has worked in Ethiopia since 1995 conducting ceramic ethnoarchaeological and Holocene archaeological research. He was part of a NSF sponsored research project that discovered a human burial dating to 4,500 years ago and led to the extraction of ancient DNA, sequencing for the first time an African ancient genome. He is an expert in African archaeology, North American archaeology, Native Americans, ceramic technology and Indigenous knowledge of beer.

El-Rady's research focuses on medical mycology -- fungi that can infect humans and animals -- molecular biology, human genetics and microbiology. He can discuss how the range of pathogenic fungi is expanding, including some fungi that can cause more serious infections, particularly in people with compromised immune systems.

Firat is an expert in geographic information science whose research focuses on wildlife ecology and conservation, public health and safety and transportation.

Scacco is an expert in political campaigns, misinformation and disinformation, social and digital media and public opinion. His research interests broadly focus on political communication, media content and effects, the political dimensions of public health as well as communication and democracy.

Bryant's research focuses on language development and psycholinguistics. She can discuss typical child development, preschoolers, language development, and children and hurricanes.

Armstrong is Literature Program Coordinator for USF's Florida Studies program. She is the author of "Mary Turner and the Memory of Lynching" and editor of multiple books on the civil rights movement, including "The Cambridge Companion to American Civil Rights Literature." She can discuss the civil rights movement, racial justice and topics relating to the civil rights history of Birmingham, Alabama.

Martin is a survey researcher who studies relationships between media use and behaviors and attitudes, such as support for freedom of expression, reliance on social media influencers for news and fears of digital surveillance. He co-leads the "Life in Media Study," the first known longitudinal study of digital media use and well-being among 6,000-9,000 11- 13-year-olds, who will be tracked for decades into middle adulthood.

Arthur's research focuses on community archaeology, ethnoarchaeology, gender, stone tool technology and heritage studies in Africa. Since 1996, she has collaborated with Boreda-Gamo people living in southern Ethiopia to help document their sacred forested landscapes and technologies.

Boterbloem teaches European History and Russian-Soviet history from the 1500s until today. Research topics include early modern and modern Russian, Soviet and Dutch history and the Russian-Soviet and Dutch empires.

Berry's research focuses on relational communication and cultural identity formation. Much of his research has focused on bullying, LGBTQ+ cultures and identities and performances of reflexivity and transformations of subjectivity in research and writing that uses autoethnography, narrative and ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing.

Burns' research focuses on social media platforms and social media influencers, including how social media influencers can help -- or mislead -- communications during disasters like hurricanes.

Gabbidon's research interests include youth sexual health disparities, HIV stigma, health equity and intersectionality.

Hawley's areas of interest include advertising creativity and graphic design -- including Super Bowl advertising. He spent 25 years years in the advertising industry as a copywriter, art director, designer and creative director before moving to higher education.

Golombisky's research focuses on topics ranging from communicating visually through graphic, web and multimedia design to feminist perspectives on advertising. She has served as visiting faculty on diversity at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, and her consulting clients have included Walt Disney World Resorts, Progressive Insurance and Publix Super Markets.

Jayaram's research focus includes migration/mobility, anthropology of Education, the Caribbean and the Americas and political economy. He has conducted fieldwork on Haitian educational and labor migrants to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and human rights for Haitian migrants.

Schmidt's research focuses on Bloom Syndrome, BLM helicase, chromosome breakage; DNA replication, recombination and repair and repair of spontaneous and induced DNA damage.

Burke is an expert on US history and politics since 1945. He can discuss the Cold War, post-Cold War order, U.S. relations with Cuba and America’s evolving role in international security. Other topics include NATO past and present and its modern role in conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, the Monroe Doctrine and the Platt Amendment and how those doctrines resonate in 21st-century debates over U.S.–Latin America relations, America’s 20th-century wars and how lessons from the Vietnam War and Gulf conflicts inform U.S. strategy today, analysis of America’s military presence and economic reach across the world, and global economic and ecological change, including how fossil fuels, industrialization and resource competition have reshaped the global order and influenced U.S. foreign policy.

Harrison carries out collaborative digital science and digital humanities research -- using digital modeling, geomatics and spatial analysis, visualization and applied technology for urban planning, infrastructure management and data-driven decision-making. She is an expert in 3D printing, laser scanning, Geographic Information System (GIS), GPS, visualization techniques and smart cities.

Starks is a Shakespearean and early modern British literature expert. Her main research interests include Shakespeare adaptation, cinema, Jewish studies and Levinas She also studies sexuality, violence and trauma in Shakespeare and other Renaissance drama; early modern theatre and Ovid.

Hagen's research focuses on how to apply artificial intelligence and big data for social science research and government decision making. Current interests are in the domains of human-centered data science, social media, cybersecurity, public health crisis and undergraduate data science education.

Cooke is a molecular scientist who is currently leading research backed by a $2 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to develop a novel device for automating the comet assay — essentially making it easier and faster to test cells for DNA damage. The goal is to produce a commercialization-ready device that will help researchers better understand how DNA damage affects health and disease, leading to better prevention and treatment strategies.

Bartesaghi's research focuses on authority, institutionalization, communication theory, discourse analysis and communication in relationships.

Bornovalova's research focuses on addictions, personality disorders (including borderline personalities), psychiatric genetics and developmental psychopathology.

Margres' lab focuses on adaptation dynamics in two co-evolving systems: Tasmanian devils and a species-specific transmissible cancer, and venomous snakes and their prey. Research in both systems involves the integration of diverse -omic approaches with phenotypic data, ecology, field work and experimentation to better understand the genotype-phenotype-fitness connection in natural populations.

Rains' research focuses on wetlands, estuaries and rivers -- including hydrological controls on ecosystem structure and function in fresh, brackish, saline and hypersaline aquatic ecosystems.

Kruzel's research focuses on healthcare communication, managing uncertainty, making health decisions, genetic risk and hereditary cancer and patient empowerment and engagement. Her projects investigate how patients, families and clinicians exchange information, manage uncertainty and make decisions regarding issues of hereditary cancer.

Muschol is an expert in medical physics. His lab studies the mechanisms regulating protein self-assembly and phase separation, which underly essential biological functions ranging from metabolism, motility, gene expression and sensing to information processing.

Kessler is an applied linguist whose research centers on issues related to computer-assisted language learning, second language writing and genre-based teaching and learning.

Owens is an expert at reading brain signals, and his research interests include mood disorders, cognitive control, emotion regulation and working memory training. Using electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking, Owens studies links between mood disorders and brain function to support cognitive therapy for individuals with depression.

Riedinger-Whitmore's research focuses on the conservation of aquatic ecosystems, monitoring the effects of environmental change and anthropogenic impacts on aquatic communities and habitats and providing data that can be used to protect and restore these ecosystems for the future.

Sloan's research interests include inequalities in emotional experiences and expressions within organizations and the social shaping of emotion, with a particular emphasis on public fear concerning the threat of terrorism and associated policy preferences. She has also studied the emotional experiences and roles of social identity and social networks in women’s involvement in terrorist organizations in the Middle East.

DeJonge's research and teaching focus on the history of Christian thought, theories and methods in religious studies, and religion in modern society.

Snipes is an associate professor of instruction of economics in the Muma College of Business. He studies tourism and its effects on the economy and has conducted research on family dynamics and the links between macro-economic fluctuations and suicide. He can discuss general economics and policy, inflation, housing and cost of living.

Miller's research focuses on motherhood studies and campus sexual harassment and violence.

Elhamdadi's research focuses on low dimensional topology, knot theory, quantum algebra, mathematical physics, applied topology, and K-Theory.

Milani is a leading expert on Iranian politics, U.S.-Middle East relations and regional security, with decades of academic and policy experience.

Ancu studies the role of online technologies, especially online social media, in political campaigns. Her research focuses on how political candidates and voters use social networking sites, blogs, podcasts and online advertising, and how these technologies affect political communication and political behavior.

Munkin's research focuses on health economics, insurance markets, medigap and health insurance.

Johnson studies the history of information technologies, focusing on how infrastructure and labor shape large technical systems.

Discenza's research focuses primarily on early medieval England, and she teaches courses in Old English language and literature, Middle English language and literature and the History of the English Language

Brescia teaches teaches Latin American literature, film and culture. He can discuss the history and theory of Latin American short fiction, 20th and 21st centuries Mexican and Southern Cone

literatures and cultural histories and Hispanic literature in the United States.

Buzzanell's research focuses on work-life balance, gendered careers, resilience, human-centered design and leadership.

La Trecchia is a cultural studies scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of food studies and the environmental humanities. She can discuss food justice, food sovereignty and environmental justice within a global and transnational framework.

Atchley's research focuses on cognitive factors related to driving, including issues of vision and attention and their relationship to driving.

Sipiora's research focuses on modern American literature and film, and grammar and rhetoric in literature and in film.

Wang is a leading expert on coastal erosion and nourishment. He can discuss the effects of extreme weather, particularly hurricanes, on coastlines and beaches. His work has been prominently featured in newspapers and on television stations in Florida and across the country.

Eswara's research focuses on staph, anthrax, endospores and antibiotic resistance. His lab studies cell division regulation and the identification of proteins unique to bacteria that could be used to develop new antibiotics for use against multi-drug resistant bacteria.

Borum is director of Intelligence and National Security Studies at USF and a past consultant for the U.S. Secret Service. His research and expertise focuses on terrorism, intelligence concepts, intelligence analysis, information behavior, strategy and decision-making, interrogation and criminal psychology.

Dougherty studies interorganizational coordination during disasters and disaster assessment. She is part of a research team that performed field work following the 2023 Maui wildfires.

Barancik's research focuses on the economics of women, families and work. She can discuss labor markets, environmental policy, poverty and inequality.

Smith's research focuses on health economics with research interests in the role and impact of patient knowledge in health care markets, hospital quality and the economics of public health programs.

Mellen is an expert on the presidency and the interaction between the executive branch, legislative branch and the judiciary. He can also discuss congressional politics and primary and midterm elections. Mellen has published extensively on what presidents do during the midterms and how effective their efforts are.

Hoy's research focuses on soft matter physics and colloidal, polymer and nanocomposite systems.

Watson is a former journalist in Jamaica whose research focuses on journalism history and law, comparing developments in the Caribbean, U.S. and other countries in areas ranging from criminal and civil libel to regulation of the broadcast media.

Atchley's research in cognitive and clinical psychology and neuroscience focuses on emotion, neuroscience, language, depression and creativity. Her NSF-funded research has investigated how problems of language comprehension persist in readers with a history of developmental and acquired language disorders.

Carney's research focuses on epidemiology, functional morphology, mosquito-borne diseases and paleontology. His epidemiology research primarily focuses on the surveillance and control of mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, West Nile virus and Zika. Through NSF- and NIH-funded global research collaborations with NASA and the CDC, he leads a team that identifies disease-spreading and invasive mosquitoes using artificial intelligence, along with citizen science data from three partner apps.

McCleary's research focuses on biodiversity, snakes and the evolution of snake venom.

Crawley's research focuses on gender and sexualities theories, queer and feminist theory, qualitative methods, social psychology and sociology of sport.

Kruse's research focuses on sinkholes, utility detection and underground pipe.

Taylor's research is broadly focused on the emergence and maintenance of institutionalized social inequality in the ancient world. Specific areas of focus include linking topics in archaeology to applied anthropology, and she has performed work in areas including North America, Central America and South America, including the far North Coast of Peru.

Solomon's research focuses on globalization, migration and international political economy, including related topics in Hong Kong and China.

Landry's research often address issues related to water, wetlands, urban forest and land cover change. Specific areas of interest including spatial and temporal dynamics of human-environmental interactions, environmental equity, water resource management and policy, applied geospatial technology and online public education and decision support systems.

Stevens' research is focused on mass spectrometry-based proteomics (the study of sets of proteins) to understand the complex molecular mechanisms underlying fundamental biological processes and mechanisms associated with the development and progression of human disease. Specific areas of interest include neuroimmune response to alcohol, alcohol and epigenetics, proteomics and systems biology.

Schindler's research focuses on Holocaust studies; German culture, history, cinema and soccer; and 18th- and 20th-century German literature.

Gary studies cyber threats to elections, cyber threat actors and reasonings and cyber threats to public and private sectors. His focus is on cyber threat actors, who are responsible for cybercrimes including ransomware and cyber espionage. He was a highly-decorated career U.S. Air Force Intelligence Officer.

Neely is an expert in survey research on policy and election topics, quantitative analysis, public policy and media and politics.

Stark's research focuses on developing and applying psychometric methods to practical problems in industrial organizational and educational settings. he has worked with university faculty and practitioners to develop and improve tests measuring job performance, personality and cognitive ability.

McNutt is a volcano seismologist who worked for the Alaska Volcano Observatory from 1991-2012. His research interests include seismology, volcanology, infrasound and volcanic lightning. Specifically, he studies volcanic tremor, low-frequency events, and explosion earthquakes, and he coordinates volcano seismology research for USF's Department of Geosciences with Research Assistant Professors Glenn Thompson and Jochen Braunmiller.

Fernandez's research focus includes Geographic Information Systems (GIS), terrestrial and aerial LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), unmanned aerial systems, site selection and feasibility and cartography.

Roach is an expert in global governance, critical international theory and global ethics and warfare. He can discuss aspects of the current U.S. administration's interest in acquiring Greenland.

Walczak's primary research interests are in applied artificial intelligence systems (including artificial neural networks, expert and knowledge-based systems, cognitive modeling, machine learning and intelligent software agents), healthcare information systems, knowledge management and organizational learning and electronic commerce specializing in online auctions and virtual presence.

Wilson's research focuses on how people navigate difficult conversations (conversations in which they attempt to pursue multiple and conflicting goals, manage stigma and project the outcomes of talking may be negative) in family, health and workplace contexts. He also explores how people communicatively construct resilience during life disruptions.

MacManus is a nationally-recognized expert in Florida politics, political issues, women in politics and voter demographics.

Allen's research focuses on work-family balance, remote and hybrid work, occupational health and employee career development.

Kulekevich studies Eastern Europe, Belarus, international political economics, migration and protest politics, democratization, international security and ethnic politics. Her research examines how opposition, identity, and institutions evolve under pressure and repression, including dynamics of authoritarian learning with extensions into international security, comparative politics and migration/diaspora politics.

Pluckhahn's research focuses on Eastern U.S. prehistory, Mesoamerican prehistory, cultural resource management, settlement pattern studies, household archaeology, environmental anthropology, ceramic analysis and GIS applications for anthropology.

Whitmore's research focuses on quantitative, community and ecosystem-level questions in freshwater systems. He is a historical ecologist and paleolimnologist who has worked for 40 years on lakes of Florida, Yunnan Province China and in the Yucatan. His research has addressed climatic and human influences on lake systems, as well as human-mediated soil erosion in watersheds of southwest China, sediment distribution in shallow wind-stressed lakes, mixing processes and redox in stratified warm-monomictic lakes, water quality and sediment geochemistry in Yunnan lakes, anthropogenic alkalization of Florida lakes, and contaminants in lake and estuarine sediments.

Chenneville's research focuses on the psychosocial issues affecting children and youth living with or at risk for HIV along with broader issues related to sexual health. She has collaborated with colleagues in Kenya, South Africa, India, England and Canada

Ojanen’s research focuses on forms and functions of aggression, school bullying and peer victimization, with additional expertise in parenting, prosocial development and social withdrawal. The goal of the work is understanding psychological predictors and social adjustment outcomes of specific forms of aggression, bullying and victimization (physical, verbal, relational and cyber bullying and victimization). Her related interests include social goals, self-esteem, narcissism, psychopathic traits and empathy, as well as rejection, acceptance and popularity/power among peers.

Dixon is an expert on the effects of hurricanes on coastal flooding and long-term changes to the coastline. He can also discuss the use of satellite geodesy to study coastal subsidence, earthquake and volcano deformation, aquifer depletion and melting ice sheets and glaciers.

Bell is director of graduate programs and research and associate professor at the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications. He is an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose primary research focuses on sports media, often where it intersects with race and gender. Bell is lead author of CTE, Media and the NFL (2019, Lexington Books), which explores the role of media in constructing chronic traumatic encephalopathy as a public health issue and a football epidemic.

Harwood is a leading expert in Vibrio Vulnificus, commonly referred to as “flesh-eating bacteria.” She can also discuss beach closures, sewage pollution and microbiology.

Peppard has published on Russian language pedagogy and writers such as Isaak Babel’, Gogol', Dostoevsky, Norman Mailer, Nabokov, Solzhenitsyn, Yury Olesha, Vladimir Voinovich and Evgenii Zamyatin, as well as on the history of Russian and Soviet sport.

Rote's research focuses on adolescent autonomy development, family decision-making, over-parenting, information management, inductive discipline and parental psychological control. As director of the Parent-Adolescent Relationships (PAR) Lab, she studies the impact of parenting on children and adolescents, with a focus on autonomy development, parental socialization and divergent perceptions of parenting.

Whitt is a veteran newsroom leader who has been a reporter, copy editor and editor at newspapers in Florida, California and North Carolina. Her editing experience includes investigative and enterprise reporting; local, state and national politics; and local news. Multimedia storytelling and news packaging/design are among her areas of expertise, and her teaching areas include First Amendment law, public affairs and local news reporting and multimedia storytelling.

Research focuses on the connections between educational experiences and career pathways and key life course transitions among students from various backgrounds. He specializes in research that challenges our understanding of interpersonal and structural influences on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and career pathways out of high schools, community colleges and four-year universities.

Jiang is an expert in solid state and materials physics and atomic, molecular and optical physics.

Qiang is interested in spatio-temporal data modeling, big data analytics, AI/machine learning and geocomputation. His current research projects include developing new data models and analytical tools for multi-scale spatio-temporal analysis, utilizing GIS and spatial data science to support disaster management and community/infrastructure resilience assessment, and

spatial analysis of social disparities and environmental justice related to natural disasters.

Pieri studies extremism -- both domestic and international, including jihadist movements. He can discuss far right activity in the U.S., antisemitism. He is the author of four books, and numerous peer-reviewed articles which focus on the relationships between religion, politics and violence.