Matthew Gardiner (C’26) delivered the Cohonguroton address, and (G’15), the Walter I. Giles Associate Professor of the Practice in Constitutional Law in the Department of Government, received the Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence.

“Your academic journeys at Georgetown have undoubtedly been filled with many high moments, but I suspect just about all of you now can recall a low moment — a grade that wasn’t as good as you expected, an experiment that produced disappointing results or a concert performance that didn’t go as well as the rehearsals had,” , the dean of the ������Ƶ & Sciences, told the audience at Gaston Hall. “But you’re all better for how you managed those lower moments and made your way to today, clearly a higher moment. So, always remember: the process is as valuable, if not more valuable, than the outcome.”

Get to know some of the students below and read the full list of award winners .

Addison Basile (C’26), Coakley Medal

Basile, from Middletown, New Jersey, had not yet committed to attending Georgetown when she arrived at , but she left in a Georgetown sweatshirt excited to tell everyone about her decision.

“What ultimately sold me on Georgetown was that it seemed like a place where I could do a bit of everything, never sacrificing one interest for another,” she said. “All of the students here seemed so engaged in what they were doing, and I really wanted to be a part of that.”

At Georgetown, Basile, who received the Coakley medal, double majored in psychology and linguistics and minored in Italian. On campus, she was involved in , a 27-hour overnight retreat; , a weekly gathering with a small group of new students and an assigned mentor; , and the .

But the cornerstone of Basile’s Georgetown experience has been her journey with the Italian language, she said. Seeking to reconnect with her father’s Sicilian heritage, Basile took a beginner Italian course to meet her language requirement during her freshman year. The summer following sophomore year, Basile traveled to Perugia, Italy for a six-week intensive Italian course with The Umbra Institute.

“When I got back from Perugia, I knew I wanted Italian to be part of the rest of my life,” Basile said.

She helped to translate her professor’s novel from Italian to English, completed internships and courses abroad, tutored in Italian at the and started an Instagram account, @ciaoitsaddy, which promotes Italian American heritage and the Italian language and has accumulated more than 17,000 followers. She capped off her Georgetown career with a linguistics thesis which studied Italian service employees and their attitudes towards Italian language learners. 

“In just three years, being Italian has gone from being a little known fact about me to being a defining part of my identity. It’s changed how I see myself and the world and how I relate to others,” Basile said. “This is all because of a core requirement and the incredible support I found in Georgetown’s Italian department.”

After graduating this spring, Basile will be going to Italy with the National Italian American Foundation, to New York City to be a guest on the Italian American Podcast and then to Ohio to work with the USA Hockey Player Development Camps. 

In October, Basile will be serving as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant at a high school in Southern Italy as a recipient of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program award. 

“I see this opportunity as the culmination of everything I learned about myself and the world at Georgetown and the perfect way to combine my long-time ambition to work in education with my love for Italian language and culture,” she said.

Since her freshman year, Basile has worked with Corp Catering at GAAP Weekends to try to share the love she found for Georgetown with other prospective students. These weekends would remind Basile of her own Georgetown journey.

“Meeting parents over breakfast and being able to share even a fraction of the love I found here always left me feeling even more grateful for the opportunity to be here,” she said. “Georgetown has been everything to me.”

The Coakley Medal was established by Elizabeth Coakley in memory of her husband, Henry “Hank” Coakley, a class of 1941 Georgetown alumnus and U.S. Air Force pilot who died in World War II. The award is presented to a ������Ƶ & Sciences senior who has displayed qualities of loving service, honor and courage.

Anna Burgess (C’26), Katherine Kraft Medal

The sense of community and the spirit of cura personalis drew Burgess, recipient of the Katherine Kraft Medal, to Georgetown. It was a place where she saw herself “growing through service and critical thought” in addition to academics, she said. Burgess chose Georgetown because she envisioned it as a place where she could challenge herself and join an engaged community. 

Originally from Fairfield, Connecticut, Burgess transferred to Georgetown after completing her freshman year at the University of Miami. At Georgetown, she studied neurobiology with minors in disability studies and economics. 

On campus, Burgess met some of her closest friends through Corp Catering. She enjoyed running races throughout DC with her friends and having “family dinners” with her roommates. 

Burgess also pursued many different opportunities to get hands-on experience in neurobiology and disability research. She shadowed at the , where she assisted in the evaluation of post-NICU toddlers. She worked at the as a peer mentor and research assistant. There, Burgess developed a research project about a curriculum for entrepreneurs with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She also volunteered with Professor ’s , which taught her how to analyze neuroimaging data.

After graduation, Burgess will be working as a research assistant with Dr. Adriana Di Martino, an autism researcher, in the Autism Center at the Child Mind Institute in New York City. Eventually, she plans to attend a clinical psychology program.

“Georgetown has helped me come into myself as a person, student and future clinician,” Burgess said. “I’ve not only gained extensive knowledge in my academic interests, but also gained a broader perspective through the core curriculum and my research, shadowing and mentorship. As I continue my education and experience in psychology, I know that I’ll be more empathetic and have a holistic approach due to what I have learned while at Georgetown.”

Cornelia Kraft McKee established the Kraft Medal in memory of her mother, Katherine Kraft, and the award is given to the student who best manifests a spirit of humility, cooperation and commitment as a person for others.

Cameron Daly (C’26), Louis McCahill Award

At Georgetown, Daly, recipient of the Louis McCahill Award, found a place with no limits. “I never once heard anyone at Georgetown say, ‘I can’t,’” he said.

Daly did not take a traditional path to the Hilltop. After graduating from high school in Missoula, Montana, he struggled with drugs and alcohol, and fell into addiction. In 2017, he moved from Montana to Portland, Oregon, where he went through treatment and moved into sober living. 

In Portland, he got a job working at a grocery store and had no plans to attend college. “I didn’t think it was meant for me,” he said. When he decided to take classes at Portland Community College, he enrolled in fifth-grade math because of the long gap since he had been in school.

Daly did well in his classes, taking a few at a time while working at Whole Foods, and he began to consider transferring. “I really wanted to go somewhere that would let me do work that felt meaningful, but I did not ever think it was in the cards,” he said. But when he got into Georgetown, he felt that this dream could become reality. 

In DC, Daly has been able to pursue his dream of building “technology that drives real innovation and has a lasting impact on my community.” He double majored in computer science and economics. 

Daly conducted research with , the Callahan Family Professor of Computer Science, in the about censorship resistance, anonymity, privacy and security. He worked on three Hackathons with . He joined , a student-run software development club. Through that experience, he met (G’25), an entrepreneur and graduate of Georgetown’s Executive MBA program, and has worked at Garcia’s startup company, GoodOnBaby.

Daly also joined , which shares overdose and harm reduction awareness to students. The club has been a defining piece of Daly’s time at Georgetown.

“As a student in long-term recovery, they helped me navigate staying sober while giving Georgetown my whole self,” he said. A highlight of Daly’s Georgetown experience was representing Hoyas for Recovery in the Mr. Georgetown competition, an experience Daly said was “so far outside of my comfort zone.”

After graduating, Daly will be working as a software engineer in the defense and national security sector. He will also continue to work with GoodOnBaby and finish up research projects at Georgetown. Daly added that he is looking forward to settling down with his partner and starting a family.

At Georgetown, he had the opportunity to start again and believes he is a completely different person now compared to when he first arrived at the Hilltop. “When I first got sober, I used to dream about what it would look like to do something meaningful with my life,” Daly said. Now that he’s graduating, he feels that this dream has become a reality. 

“I can say with complete confidence that coming to Georgetown has completely changed the trajectory of my life,” Daly said. “I cannot wait to see where that goes.”

The Louis McCahill Award was established in 1960 by Eugene McCahill and Francis McCahill in memory of their brother, Louis, who died in service during the First World War. It is given to the student who has shown perseverance and determination of a high order in pursuing educational objectives at Georgetown.

Simone Guité (C’26), Lambert H. Spronck Medal

Guité’s education at Georgetown has changed the way she thinks about the world. Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Guité, winner of the Lambert H. Spronck Medal, was passionate about law and politics. Because of its access to politics in DC, Georgetown was her dream school.

Visiting the campus for the first time during GAAP Weekend felt like “a warm embrace,” said Guité. “I chose Georgetown for the opportunities to be connected with politics and for the amazing community of students and professors that make the school so special.”

Guité is a double major in American studies and government with a minor in women and gender studies. Recently, she completed her thesis, “Thread of Memory: Midwestern Farm Women’s Narration of Sewing, Homemaking, and Hardship,” in which Guité explored a series of oral histories with homemakers who had raised families on Midwestern farms in the mid-20th century.

In American Studies classes, including the Global American Studies Exchange, Guité had the opportunity to not only learn about American history, but to analyze how and why we tell history in certain ways. 

“My Georgetown education has changed how I think about the world around me,” Guité said. “We challenge mainstream narratives by examining whose perspectives are included in those stories, and why other viewpoints are left out.”

On the Hilltop, Guité found opportunity and community. Early on in her college career, she served as GAAP Oregon State Chair and was involved in the (Guité is a member of the Chinook Nation), which helped her find comfort while living far from home. Playing trumpet with , and eventually serving as president, she found a group of people that felt like a family. And joining the gave her the opportunity to advocate for issues she cared about and to meet her closest friends. 

While attending Georgetown, Guité interned for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee and Representative Maxine Dexter, inspiring her to pursue a career in politics and giving her the opportunity to give back to her community. 

After graduating, she will be working as a field organizer for the Iowa Democratic Party ahead of the midterm elections. 

“When I leave Georgetown, I will take with me the ability to think critically about the world around me, and how I can use my skills to make it a better place.”

The Lambert H. Spronck Medal was founded in 1963 by the students of the College in memory of Lambert H. Spronck (C’63). It is awarded to that student who has, throughout their college career, combined good scholarship with significant contributions to extracurricular activities, and who has manifested a spirit of giving completely to whatever Georgetown project or activity they are engaged in.

Matthew Gardiner (C’26), Cohonguroton Address

Gardiner, a double major in history and biology, was selected to give the Cohonguroton address.

“Cohonguroton” is an Algonquin word for the Potomac River that roughly translates to “river of swans.” The address is considered a symbolic “swan song” delivered by a member of the graduating class.

Joseph Hartman (G’15), Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence

Hartman, the Walter I. Giles Associate Professor of the Practice in Constitutional Law in the Department of Government, received the Edward B. Bunn, S.J. Award for Faculty Excellence, which is determined by a direct vote from the senior class. 

The award was established in 1967 to honor Rev. Edward B. Bunn, S.J., for his years of devotion and service to Georgetown University as president and chancellor.

(All photos by Dave Asche for Georgetown University)

“I am immensely grateful for this recognition of the value of my work and its potential to alter conversations in my fields of specialization, medieval literature and the history of emotion,” McNamer said. “For me, this will serve as inspiration to think more boldly and creatively not only about my current book project, but about how the methods I develop might help others to model their research questions and practices.”

McNamer is one of 223 fellows in this year’s cohort of awardees working across 55 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields. Each year since 1925, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded fellowships to trailblazing artists, scientists and scholars. The fellows receive a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions,” the foundation .  

In 2023, , the interim provost and the former interim dean of the College of the Arts & Sciences, was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship in theatre arts and performance studies. , a professor in the School of Foreign Service, also won the award that year.

“Being named a Guggenheim Fellow is one of the most significant forms of recognition that a scholar can receive,” said ������Ƶ & Sciences Dean . “Sarah McNamer richly deserves this honor. Her research has made an indelible and lasting impact on the field of English, the study of the medieval period and our understanding of human emotions.”

The History of Emotion

McNamer’s primary research interest is in the interplay between medieval literature and the history of emotion.

“The history of emotion may be an unfamiliar concept to some, but the idea that emotions — like everything else about us humans — have histories, and are in part socially and culturally constructed, was one that I began to explore early in my graduate studies,” she said. “A core question of, ‘How do literary texts both reflect and generate affective experience in history?’ has motivated my research.”

She is currently working on a book, Affect and Audience in the Work of the Pearl Poet. The Pearl Poet, also known as the Gawain Poet, is the unknown author of the late 14th-century poems, “Pearl” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The identity and cultural location of this elusive author remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of English literary history, McNamer said, and she plans to use the Guggenheim grant to help support her research.

“I’ve always been interested in theorizing affect historically and exploring how literary texts generate affective experience in history,” she said. “For this poet, such questions are especially challenging, because basic facts about his historical coordinates are unknown. We know he wrote sometime in the second half of the 14th century, but for whom was he writing, when, where, for what occasions?”

In addition to being a Guggenheim Fellow, McNamer was as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Historical Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, for the , which will also support her research for the book. 

“This will be an ideal locus for research and writing in the company of other scholars from across the disciplines in the coming academic year,” McNamer said. 

Her book, , won the from the Conference on Christianity and Literature, and her critical edition, translation and commentary of received the for a Manuscript in Italian Literary Studies. 

“Georgetown faculty have a long and distinguished record of producing pathbreaking research in the humanities,” Edelstein said. “Professor McNamer’s scholarship demonstrates how the study of literature can illuminate the human condition and, by doing so, help us better understand society’s past, present and future.”

Exploring the Medieval Past

McNamer grew up in Montana, where she said she was “taught by some formidable Irish nuns in Catholic schools.”

She went on to study English at Harvard University and was drawn to literary study from the beginning. But McNamer said she had little interest in the distant past until her professor, Derek Pearsall, “opened up the medieval world to me and I began to see how rich and strange and fascinating it was.”

During a gap year in college, she traveled around the world, and to her, the Middle Ages began to have the same lure as experiencing other cultures. McNamer taught English in Japan, which helped form her love of teaching and sent her on the path to academia. 

She earned an MPhil in English Studies (Medieval Period) from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a Ph.D. in English from University of California, Los Angeles. She also served as a Junior Fellow of comparative literature at Harvard Society of Fellows from 1995-97 and 1998-99. 

McNamer started at Georgetown on Jan. 1, 2000, a date she said “seemed auspicious.” 

“I look back to the distant past on a daily basis, but my start date also oriented me towards thinking about the future: how can we think about medieval literature and culture with fresh, 21st-century approaches?,” she said.

McNamer has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses at Georgetown that include Chaucer, Ways of Reading, Global Medieval Literatures, The Art of Short Fiction and Premodern Worlds: 500-1500. From 2017 to 2023, McNamer served as director of the .

“I’m grateful that Georgetown has been so forward-looking and supportive,” McNamer said. “And, of course, we have amazing students at Georgetown. Exploring the medieval past with them has been a joy.”

(Top image by Judy Licht)

“In both cases, you are trying to pursue a positive future not just for yourself, but also for other people,” Freund said.

This fall, he will be enrolling in at the University of Cambridge. Freund is to be selected as part of the 2026 class of Gates Cambridge Scholars. The prestigious scholarship program fully funds postgraduate study and research in any subject at the University of Cambridge.

During his four years there, Freund, who majored in psychology and minored in German and history in the ������Ƶ & Sciences, plans to research the changing role of judicial discretion at sentencing. It will bring him closer to his ultimate career goal of becoming a professor of criminology. 

After graduating from Georgetown in 2023, Freund worked as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Berlin and earned a master’s degree in criminology and criminal justice from the University of Oxford. He is currently serving as program coordinator for the Prison Education Project (PEP) at Washington University in St. Louis. 

“I think I have always been interested in justice and using the privilege that I have in service of other people,” Freund said. 

Psychology and the Legal System

Born in New York, Freund and his family moved to San Diego when he was around the age of 4. His parents still live there.

Freund did not think he would move more than 2,600 miles across the country to DC for college, but attending a for admitted students swayed his decision. 

“I feel like among the schools I got into, Georgetown presented the most compelling vision of attending to its students,” he said. “The whole concept of cura personalis really came through to me.”

Initially, Freund thought he would major in government on the Hilltop. His main interest in high school, he said, was competing on the mock trial team, and Freund figured law school would be in his future. 

But he discovered that it was his psychology courses at Georgetown that he enjoyed the most. The class Psychology and the Legal System with , a professor of psychology and vice dean for faculty affairs in the College, helped him learn how to apply psychology and social sciences to the operations of the legal system, Freund said.

That led him to propose an honors thesis that combined concepts from that class and his Cultural Psychology class with , an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. 

Freund’s thesis compared two different video layouts for videoconferencing during pretrial hearings in the courtroom. He consulted with a judge and faculty members at Georgetown to videotape a simulated courtroom hearing, then used an eyetracker and surveys to examine self-assessed recall, self-assessed understanding, procedural fairness and outcome fairness between the two video layouts.

Woolard called it “one of the most interesting undergraduate thesis projects I have supervised.” 

“Rafi has a very active mind,” Chentsova Dutton said. “It is clear that his goal is not just to get a good grade but to understand human complexity better.”

A Passion for Education

Freund also developed his passion for education at Georgetown. 

He spent three years as a teaching assistant for the Probability and Statistics course with , a teaching professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. That experience helped him realize that he loved teaching and standing in front of a classroom. Freund was also involved in the and as a tutor for the . 

“Rafi has all the qualities that make for an excellent TA,” Meyer said. “What distinguished Rafi was his attention to detail and sensitivity to his students’ needs as learners. He always paid close attention to students’ common mistakes and misconceptions while grading the assignments and interacting with students during labs and office hours.”

To Freund, his interests in criminal justice and teaching are not distinct. 

“They coalesce in a belief that all people should be able to benefit from a high-quality education,” he said.

At the University of Cambridge, Freund plans to research how sentencing operates and how the role of judicial discretion has changed over time. In his research and work experience, Freund has found that rigid approaches to sentencing can leave people doubting procedural and outcome fairness. 

The limits on discretion, he said, are being placed faster than the field is considering the potential consequences of those limits, particularly as many anticipate the integration of artificial intelligence in sentencing decisions. 

Freund wants to take a step back and ask: Is there something lost alongside the human judge? What happens when judges are prevented from being able to engage with the people they’re sentencing?

“This is a really urgent thing to think about,” he said.

(Top photo courtesy of Rafi Freund, taken at Washington University in St. Louis)

The AAAS is one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals. Each year, are selected for their achievements across disciplines that include research, teaching, administration in academia and communicating and interpreting science to the public. Founded in 1848, the AAAS has more than 120,000 members and began honoring AAAS Fellows . 

According to , nearly 50 Georgetown University faculty members have been named AAAS Fellows since 1925.

“I am delighted and humbled by this recognition of my work,” Del Gado said. “The AAAS is one of the most important organizations in the sciences. I admire their mission and their goals. I am especially grateful to the students, graduates and undergraduates, and the post-doctoral researchers I have had the chance to work with over these years, as it is our common work that is being recognized.”

Del Gado joined Georgetown faculty in 2014 and is one of the 28 members selected this year in the physics section of the . , an adjunct professor for Georgetown University Medical Center, was also named a 2025 AAAS Fellow in the section of general interest in science and engineering. 

Two other professors in Georgetown’s Department of Physics, and , have been previously honored as AAAS Fellows. Del Gado was named a fellow this year “for distinguished contributions to the field of soft materials focused on gels, glasses and other soft amorphous solids using computational statistical physics.” 

“This is a wonderful recognition of the interdisciplinary nature of Emanuela’s work and its scientific impact beyond physics,” said professor and chair of the physics department. “Her studies tackle complicated systems, soft materials with complex microstructure, using statistical and computation physics to solve engineering problems, from tuning mechanical properties of network gels, to sustainable production of cement, to design of materials with desired functionalities.”

Del Gado said the opportunity to “understand things that appear difficult and mysterious” drew her to the physics field.

Physics helps “reveal the logic and the functioning of the world around us, developing ideas that can have far reaching implications, beyond physics, for technologies, artificial intelligence and even social systems,” Del Gado said.

Three professors received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award: , and ; and two staff members received the Distinguished Staff Award: (G’11) and (M’89). 

received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award, received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award and received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award. (G’91, G’95) received the Condé Nast Award.

“It’s important to recognize the great work that goes on in the ������Ƶ & Sciences in all areas,” said Dean . “We recognize the faculty for their teaching, research and service to this institution, for which we are all so grateful — especially the students, both undergrad and grad. We also recognize our staff. All of us who have been around Georgetown, around higher education institutions, know that it’s staff who are the glue in our institution and hold so much together and allow us to do the great work that we do on behalf of our students.”

Get to know the award recipients, their work at Georgetown and what makes them a proud member of the College.

Kostadin Kushlev, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Kushlev, an associate professor in and director of the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

His research examines how digital technologies — especially smartphones and social media — impact well-being, fragment attention and promote or undermine social connection. His work aims to identify ways technology can be designed to support happier and healthier lives.

Arik Levinson, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Levinson, at Georgetown University and a research associate at the , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.  

He is currently of the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. He previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Climate and Energy Economics at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. 

Levinson’s recent projects calculate the degree to which industrialized countries have been offshoring their most polluting economic activities, and evaluate the way some industries and the U.S. government have proposed to calculate carbon emissions caused by grid-connected electricity use.

Josiah Osgood, Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award

Osgood, a professor in , received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award. 

Osgood has taught at Georgetown since 2002 and served as chair of the Classics department from 2016 to 2022.  He regularly offers classes in Roman history and in Latin language and literature. For many years, he co-directed study abroad programs in which students visited archaeological sites in Greece, Turkey and Italy. 

Osgood’s research focuses on politics in ancient Rome and he has written about civil war, Roman women and Roman historical writing, among other topics. He is currently working on research about senators and their families in imperial Rome.

Colva Weissenstein (G’11), Distinguished Staff Award

Weissenstein, the program manager for , received the Distinguished Staff Award. 

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within a department or program, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

Weissenstein holds a B.A. in English from George Mason University and an M.A. in from Georgetown. With expertise in film and media studies — particularly horror cinema and advertising — as well as university administration, Weissenstein brings both intellectual curiosity and organizational care to her work.

Weissenstein is especially proud of cultivating a vibrant, supportive community among American Studies students and faculty, where collaboration and connection are central. Through sustaining beloved program traditions, including pedagogical field trips, she has helped foster a culture defined by curiosity, creativity and playfulness. Committed to joy as a meaningful part of academic life, she works to ensure that the program remains not only rigorous, but also welcoming, dynamic and deeply human.

Dr. Mary Beth Connell (M’89), Distinguished College Service Award 

Connell, an associate dean and the director of , received the Distinguished College Service Award.

This award is given to staff who have a record of extraordinary service within the College, and who have demonstrated selflessness as people for others, cura personalis, commitment to community in diversity and creative leadership and service in support of academic excellence.

In her roles at Georgetown, Connell oversees the advising of pre-health students, chairs the Pre-Health Recommendation Committee and directs the , which is for students who have completed their undergraduate education in a non-science area and wish to change careers.  

Connell received her M.D. from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1989. She also completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation and practiced at INOVA Fairfax Hospital. She has served Georgetown University since 1993, initially through Georgetown’s , then on the Board of Governors, Directors and Regents. Her favorite role is guiding students on their journey to a health professions career.

Abigail Marsh, Farr Faculty Excellence Award

Marsh, a professor in the and and the co-director of the , received the Farr Faculty Excellence Award (Natural, Quantitative and Interdisciplinary Science).

This award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovative dissemination of scientific knowledge. 

Marsh received her Ph.D. from Harvard University and conducted post-doctoral research at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research uses functional and structural brain imaging as well as behavioral, cognitive and pharmacological approaches and the study of special populations to answer the questions: How do we understand what others think and feel? What drives us to help other people? What prevents us from harming them? 

She is the author of 100-plus peer-reviewed publications and an award-winning trade book, . Her research has received awards that include the Cozzarelli Prize for scientific excellence and originality from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, The S&R Foundation’s Kuno Award for Applied Science for the Social Good and the Richard J. Wyatt Fellowship award for translational research from NIMH. She is the co-founder of .

Dagomar Degroot, Stevens Faculty Excellence Award

, an associate professor of , received the Stevens Faculty Excellence Award (Social Science).

​​The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in a social sciences field.

Degroot’s first book, The Frigid Golden Age: Climate Change, the Little Ice Age, and the Dutch Republic, 1560-1720, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018 and named by the Financial Times as one of the ten best history books of that year. His new book, , was published by Harvard University Press and Penguin, and is a Scientific American, New Scientist and Nautilus book of the year. He is currently editing several books on past climate change, including the forthcoming . 

He also writes, narrates and produces , an award-winning podcast, video series and website on the history of climate change. He has shared the unique perspectives of the past with policymakers, corporate leaders and journalists in many cities, from Wuhan to Washington, DC. Degroot teaches courses on such topics as existential risk, space exploration and the history of climate change. 

Charles McNelis, Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award

McNelis, a professor of who also serves as the faculty director of Graduate Liberal Studies and the interim director of the , received the Tosetti Faculty Excellence Award (Humanities).

The award honors excellent research, effective mentoring of student research and innovation in the humanities.

McNelis has been a member of the faculty since 2002. He teaches Latin at all levels, as well as a range of courses on ancient Greek and Latin literature and culture. 

His research focuses on the connections between Greek and Latin literature, particularly in the genre of epic poetry. He is the author of and , co-written with . Most recently, he has published a commentary on Statius’ Achilleid, a poem which takes as its subject Achilles, the greatest Greek hero. McNelis received his undergraduate degree in Classics from Columbia University, his M.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of California Los Angeles.

Diana Glick (G’91, G’95), Condé Nast Award

Glick, a teaching professor of the , received the Condé Nast Award. 

Founded in 1966 by the Georgetown College Student Council to honor the memory of the first president of the student body, this award is given by the ������Ƶ & Sciences to faculty who have served the College with distinguished teaching, research, service and leadership.

For more than 30 years on the Hilltop, Glick has taught everything from general chemistry to inorganic and spectroscopic methods, working with both large lecture classes and small groups of majors. A passionate advocate for science education at all levels, Glick has developed courses for non-science majors and championed the integration of research throughout the undergraduate experience.

Glick earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University wherein she developed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopic techniques for polyoxometalate complexes. Since 2010, she has served as director of undergraduate studies and as faculty advisor to the student chemistry community, roles through which she has mentored countless students. Her efforts were further recognized in 2015 when she received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

She is known across campus for helping students find confidence in challenging subjects — and on occasion, even convincing them that chemistry can be fun. She continues to believe that small moments in the classroom can make a lasting difference in a student’s life.

For Brinsmade, the honor represents more than an opportunity to present his lab’s discoveries — it is a platform to mentor, connect and inspire. As part of the program, he has been connecting with institutions across the country to share his research and engage directly with students and faculty, offering guidance on research trajectories, professional development and scientific leadership.

Brinsmade has already been active in this role. Last November, he was at the Theobald Smith Society Fall 2025 Symposium, and in March, he will speak at the .

“This is an honor, recognizing his commitment to mentoring students and junior faculty members,” said , chair of the . “In Biology, we recognize his talents; this award lets others — inside and outside of the University — know about his mentoring commitments and his strong research.”

How Bacteria Works

The focuses on a fundamental question in microbiology: how bacterial pathogens decide when to produce toxins.

While bacteria are often framed as invaders, Brinsmade offers a different perspective. “We often think of bacteria as ‘out to get us,’ but they’re not,” he said. “Their goal is to multiply, to divide, to grow.”

To do that, bacteria must obtain nutrients inside the human body during infection. His lab studies “how they make the decision to turn on the synthesis of proteins or other molecules to help them forage those nutrients in the host during infection,” Brinsmade said. In short, the group investigates the regulation of toxin production and the broader mechanics of bacterial physiology.

Another focus of the lab is antibiotic resistance. “We use antibiotics to treat bacterial infections, and they’re becoming increasingly ineffective because of antibacterial resistance,” Brinsmade said. Many antibiotics target the bacterial cell membrane, which is the structure that separates the inside of the cell from the outside and is essential for survival.

Brinsmade’s team has made a recent discovery in their bacterium of interest, Staphylococcus aureus. The team found that this dangerous bacterium has a hidden backup system for building its membrane, and that discovery could help scientists design better antibiotics.

Still, Brinsmade emphasizes that his lab is fundamentally driven by curiosity and basic biology. “We try to unravel the fundamental mechanics of bacterial physiology,” he said. While new therapies would be welcome, that’s not their goal. Their main goal is to understand the biology of the organism.

Teaching Beyond the Textbook

Brinsmade is deeply committed to undergraduate and graduate education. 

“I always put the students first,” he said, whether in the classroom or the research lab.

He has taught courses including biochemistry, microbiology and mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis. While foundational knowledge is essential, he believes undergraduate science is more than memorizing facts.

“In all these courses, you have to start somewhere … but we also expand on what we read in a textbook and look into the primary literature,” Brinsmade said. 

Students analyze journal articles written by scientists, learning not only new discoveries but “the process by which those data are obtained,” he said. As Brinsmade puts it, “you actually learn about doing science at the same time that you’re learning about the science.”

He finds that excitement in the classroom can be infectious. 

Students often “get excited about learning a new technique, or learning about a new discovery… and they become curious,” Brinsmade said.

The Importance of Mentorship

Mentorship, for Brinsmade, is central to both his career and his identity as a scientist. His lab includes trainees from the United States but also from countries all over the world, including Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Korea. 

He approaches mentoring as individualized work. 

“Everybody is different,” Brinsmade said. “There’s not a one-size-fits-all.” Each trainee requires “a bespoke experience,” he added, shaped by their goals, background and aspirations.

He acknowledges that becoming a good mentor is an ongoing process. “I’ve learned by making mistakes. Nobody’s perfect,” he said. Mentoring, he believes, is more of a practice, because “you’re always learning something new.”

His commitment to holistic evaluation stems from his own experience. As a student, he described himself as “not a very good standardized test taker,” and his standardized testing scores were “average at best.”

“There’s more to a person than a test score,” he said. Because others gave him a chance, he strives to do the same for his students.

Finding Your Advocates

Brinsmade also sees the Distinguished Lecturer role as a platform for representation. “Anybody can be a scientist,” he said. As someone who identifies as LGBTQ, he hopes that visibility matters. By traveling, giving lectures and sharing his story, he hopes others will see themselves in science.

“We don’t hear much about those scientists who identify as LGBTQ,” he said. “If someone sees me and says, ‘I can also be just like Professor Brinsmade,’ then that’s important.”

When asked what message he would share with Georgetown students, his advice was direct: “Take advantage of the opportunities that are available to you. You never know where they’ll lead you.”

He also encourages students to seek mentors, even multiple ones. “There’s not one person that can be a mentor for every aspect of your life,” he said. Instead, “surround yourselves with mentors and people that are going to support you and advocate for you, and they will help you achieve your dreams.”

Through the ASM Distinguished Lecturer program, Brinsmade will share his lab’s discoveries with audiences nationwide. Just as importantly, he will continue modeling the inclusive, curiosity-driven science that defines his work and demonstrate that excellence in research and dedication to mentorship go hand in hand.