Student Recognition

2026

Yashar Aghaei
Viterbi School of Engineering, Environmental Engineering
Faculty Advisors: Jiachen Zhang and Constantinos Sioutas;

Air pollution kills approximately eight million people worldwide each year, yet scientists still debate which particles are most dangerous and how to regulate them effectively. Yashar Aghaei is helping answer these questions. As a doctoral student in Viterbi’s Environmental Engineering program, he has authored 10 peer-reviewed publications, including 6 as lead author, examining how particle size, chemical composition, and source determine toxicity in human lungs. Yashar designed novel instruments to monitor air quality in real time, tracked pollution from Los Angeles wildfires, and built data systems that link emission sources directly to health outcomes. His research, continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, provides the evidence that regulators need to write smarter air quality standards and protect vulnerable communities.

Mohammad Bazmi  
Viterbi School of Engineering, Chemical Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Kristian Jessen

While many doctoral students focus exclusively on laboratory research, Mohammad has bridged academia and industry to address one of humanity’s most urgent challenges: converting captured carbon dioxide into valuable fuels and chemicals. As a key researcher on three significant industry partnerships, Mohammad developed membrane reactor technologies that achieve conversion rates far exceeding current industrial standards. His innovative coupling of advanced AI modeling with experimental reactor design has accelerated what typically takes months of computation to hours, opening new possibilities for rapid innovation in sustainable energy. Beyond the laboratory, Mohammad has mentored younger students and organized workshops to share computational modeling expertise with his peers.

Maiya Hotchkiss
Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, Social Work
Faculty Advisor: John Blosnich

Maiya’s research brings together rigorous scholarship and a deep community commitment to address one of society’s most urgent challenges: supporting LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness. Their work bridges the university and the streets of Los Angeles, where they’ve volunteered at Casa de Zulma, the city’s only supportive housing program for transgender individuals, and partnered with the LA LGBT Center’s drop-in services. Maiya earned a prestigious NIH fellowship on their first submission (an extremely rare achievement) to study how communities can better prevent suicide among marginalized young people. With 13 publications, including a first-authored paper in American Psychologist, Maiya graduates with a scholarly profile that exemplifies dedication to community and societal betterment.

Saif Khan
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Molecular and Computational Biology
Faculty Advisor: Cornelius Gati

For over a decade, scientists have tried to see how opioid drugs work at the molecular level, which would help us explain why some drugs save lives while others fuel addiction. Khan solved what was thought to be impossible. Using cryo-electron microscopy, he captured the first-ever images of previously invisible states of opioid receptors, revealing in atomic detail how naloxone, the overdose reversal drug carried by paramedics and police nationwide, blocks opioid effects to save lives. His breakthrough publication in Nature represents a significant milestone in structural biology. In parallel work soon to appear in a second Nature paper, Khan helped design a light-activated opioid that relieves pain without causing the respiratory depression that kills in overdoses, opening pathways toward safer pain medications in the midst of an ongoing national crisis.

Eric Tinkerhess
Thornton School of Music, Musicology
Faculty Advisor: Adam Knight Gilbert

Eric bridges the worlds of performance and scholarship with a rare fluency. An internationally acclaimed baroque cellist and viola da gamba player, he arrived at USC with degrees from Oberlin, the Sorbonne, and the Paris Conservatory. As both performer and teacher, Eric introduced USC students to historical performance practices, guiding them through remote rehearsals during the pandemic with unwavering dedication. His dissertation research on the French Baroque composer Marin Marais demonstrates how the composer used rhythms, tonalities, rhetorical figures, and dance to create lively portraits of the early modern world. The work offers a new and enhanced understanding of how music is shaped by culture and vice versa.

Zaina Ujayli 
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, American Studies and Ethnicity
Faculty Advisor: Sarah Gualtieri

Arab American women of the early twentieth century exist in a paradox. They are absent from historical archives yet hyper-visible in Orientalist stereotypes, such as the belly dancer. Zaina set out to recover their actual lives. Fluent in Arabic and English, she became an archival detective, traveling from New York to obscure periodical collections to unearth forgotten lectures, court documents, and the writings of Syrian women who lectured on Chautauqua circuits, performed in films, and built networks across ethnic communities. Her research reveals how women actively shaped their own representations and participated in anti-colonial movements. Beyond academia, Zaina bridges scholarship with public engagement through screenwriting fellowships and opinion writing, bringing these recovered voices to broader audiences.