Research News, Awards, and Honors

Shady Amin (Associate Professor of Biology and Co-principal Investigator at the Mubadala ACCESS Center) and his team, working with the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD), carried out extensive studies aboard EAD’s oceanographic research vessel Jaywun to examine how microbial communities shape marine ecosystems and assess the Arabian Gulf’s ability to withstand environmental stress. Early results point to signs of resilience: nutrient levels remain consistently low, as expected for the region, yet phytoplankton productivity is strikingly high, outpacing levels in the Red Sea and Mediterranean. This efficiency suggests an ecosystem driven by highly adapted microorganisms, establishes a new scientific baseline for the Gulf, strengthens the UAE’s position in water research, and supports long-term climate resilience planning.

Kourosh Salehi-Ashtiani (Associate Professor of Biology) and a team of NYU Abu Dhabi researchers have developed LA⁴SR, a powerful new artificial intelligence tool that can rapidly and accurately identify previously undetectable proteins in microalgae—organisms essential to global oxygen production and aquatic ecosystems. Traditional methods often miss large portions of algal proteins or require weeks of computation, but LA⁴SR applies language-model principles to protein sequences, separating algal proteins from microbial “noise” with near-perfect accuracy and at speeds 10,000 times faster than existing approaches. “Microalgae are among the most important organisms on Earth, but much of their biology is still hidden from us,” said Salehi-Ashtiani. David Nesson (Senior Research Scientist and lead author) added that the tool “makes the invisible visible” by capturing genomic information standard tools overlook. This breakthrough accelerates the discovery of new natural compounds, enzymes, and environmental insights, marking a significant advancement in marine biology, clean-energy research, and ecosystem monitoring.

Dimitra Atri (Principal Investigator, NYUAD Space Exploration Laboratory), with Vignesh Krishnamoorthy (Research Assistant), and the NYU Abu Dhabi Planetary Science Team published new findings in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Planets showing that Mars may have remained habitable longer than previously thought. Their study found that ancient sand dunes in Gale Crater gradually transformed into rock through interaction with underground water billions of years ago, extending the possible window during which the planet could have supported life.

Joan Barceló (Assistant Professor of Political Science) and Leonid Peisakhin (Associate Professor of Political Science) published “The Legacy of Multi-Dimensional Conflict” in Comparative Political Studies, challenging the notion that conflicts rest on a single, lasting divide. Drawing on panel voting data and original survey research from the Spanish Civil War, which featured both an ideological Left-Right split and a center-periphery divide, they show that in multidimensional conflicts a secondary prewar cleavage can emerge as the dominant one after violence. Communities that suffered more from Rightist violence became more supportive of regional autonomy rather than traditional Leftist parties, illustrating how the political meaning of conflict can shift in response to post-conflict discourse.

Stephane Boissinot (Professor of Biology) and former NYUAD postdoctoral scientists Joseph Manthey and Yann Bourgeois published “Temporal Genomics Reveal a Century of Genomic Diversity Shifts Across a Biodiversity Hotspot Avian Assemblage” in Genome Biology and Evolution. The study tracks a century of genetic change in Ethiopian highland bird species, providing new insights into how species in this biodiversity hotspot have adapted over time.

Tishani Doshi (Visiting Associate Professor of Practice, Literature and Creative Writing) and Masha Kirasarova (Associate Professor of History) co-organized a dynamic three-day conference titled The Future is Not a Grave, bringing together scholars, performers, and artists from multiple disciplines. There were numerous public events co-organized with the NYUAD Art Gallery and Reading Room, as well as the NYUAD Arts Center. The program included two well-attended public events that expanded the conversation to the broader community, underscoring the university’s commitment to accessible, engaged scholarship and emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue. Doshi and Kirasarova were interviewed by the Afikra podcast about the workshop.

Nidal Hilal (Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering) continues to lead research at the Water Research Center (WRC), advancing sustainable desalination and water treatment technologies. In September 2025, he co-authored the Water Research article “Alkylation as a strategy for optimizing water uptake and enhancing selectivity in polyethyleneimine-based anion-exchange membranes for brine mining via electrodialysis” and holds a U.S. patent, with Yazan Ibrahim (Post Doctoral Associate), for surface-patterned, spacerless membranes.  The technology cuts energy use by 15–20%, boosts performance, and eliminates plastic spacers, supporting more sustainable desalination.

Dale Hudson (Associate Professor of Film and New Media) coauthored two chapters with Patricia R. Zimmermann in 2025. “Environments of Race and Place,” in The Oxford Handbook of American Documentary (edited by Joshua Glick and Patricia Aufderheide, Oxford University Press, 2025), examines how participatory community media from specific places and racialized communities challenge longstanding biases in documentary studies and show the ties between environmental and racial justice. “Documentary’s Augmented Realities,” in Expanded Documentary: Ecologies of Images/Images of Ecology (edited by Jasmin Kermanchi and Anna Wiehl, Oxford University Press, 2025), looks at microlocal works shaped by communities navigating shared space and confronting past and present injustices.

Kenichiro Kamei (Associate Professor of Biology and Bioengineering), Jeremy Teo (Associate Professor of Engineering), Andras Gyorgy (Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering), and Vijayavenkataraman Sanjairaj (Assistant Professor of Engineering) advanced living therapeutics and stem cell engineering through both research and community-building, notably launching the 1st MENA Conference on Living Therapeutics at NYU Abu Dhabi. Kamei also published key studies, including “A Robust Method to Generate High-Purity Endothelial Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells,” “A Practical Primed-hPSC Method to Generate Functional Blastocyst-Like Structures,” and a International Journal of Pharmaceutics paper on a “trinity” nanodelivery system that selectively targets cancer cells.

Abhishek Majumdar (Arts Professor of Theater) has received two major international play commissions scheduled to premiere in 2026 and 2027. Phayul (Tibetan), the second play in his Tibet Trilogy, is being produced by Tibet Theater in collaboration with Ruhrfest Recklinghausen in Germany. His second commission, 11 Lives of Jaber Muhamad (English, Arabic), is a documentary play based on the real-life account of a man’s illegal detention in Guantanamo Bay. The work is commissioned by Golden Thread Productions in San Francisco and supported by the Humanitas Foundation. 

Khalil Ramadi (Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Tandon) and his research team have developed SPIRAL (Strategic Precision Infusion for Regional Administration of Liquid), a brain implant that delivers drugs to multiple regions with high precision, opening new possibilities for treating neurological disorders. The thin, flexible device features carefully designed openings that release medication in a controlled manner, allowing access to larger and more complex areas of brain tissue while remaining minimally invasive. The research, published in the Journal of Neural Engineering, addresses limitations of existing implants, enabling safer, more even distribution of drugs across multiple regions. Batoul Khlaifat (Research Assistant and Co-Lead Author) highlighted that the design supports long-term treatment while maintaining patient safety, potentially transforming therapy for conditions such as epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease.

Gunja SenGupta (Professor of History) served as a speaker on the Presidential Plenary Panel on Research in World History at the World History Association’s 2025 conference. She also published an article, “Slavery and Slave Trades in the Comoros,” in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History (Oxford University Press, July 16, 2025). In November 2025, the University of California Press published a new paperback edition of Sojourners, Sultans, and Slaves: America and the Indian Ocean in the Age of Abolition and Empire, the book she co-authored with Awam Amkpa (Dean of Arts and Humanities; Professor of Drama, Social and Cultural Analysis). The title earned the 2024 Bentley Book Prize from the World History Association and the 2024 Paul Lovejoy Book Prize from Brill and the Journal of Global Slavery.

Joanna Settle (Professor of Theater) and Saudi Arabian artist-choreographer Sarah Brahim premiered How Can I Reach You?, a durational performance created in response to its site and moment. Commissioned by the Alserkal Arts Foundation and hosted by London’s Delfina Foundation, the work was presented on October 18 at the close of Frieze Week for an audience of 300, marking a significant international platform for this collaborative project.

Muhammad Shafique (Professor of Computer Engineering and AI Systems) and his research group reported a strong run of publications across top AI and EDA venues, PhD students Minghao Shao and Boyuan Chen with two papers accepted at AAAI 2026, Nishant Aswani (PhD student) and Saif Jabari (Associate Professor of Civil and Urban Engineering) with three papers and one UniReps workshop paper at NeurIPS 2025, and Nouhaila Innan (Postdoctoral Associate) with two posters at QTML 2025. They also secured several journal acceptances in IEEE Access, including Alberto Marchisio (Postdoctoral Associate) with “TransInferSim” for fast evaluation of transformer accelerators, with “EVDO” for improved deepfake detection, and “FeatuReBeam” for high-frame-rate ultrasound imaging. These achievements collectively highlight Shafique’s continued leadership in AI, secure systems, and energy-efficient computing. Complete details of the group’s achievements are available inlab’s site here.

Kartik Sreenivasan (Associate Professor of Psychology) and Osama Abdallah (Research Instrumentation Scientist II) led the Center for Brain and Health’s Open MS Research Day, supported by the Biomedical Imaging and Kinesis CTPs, hosted for ambassadors of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society UAE on November 5, 2025. The community-focused event brought together researchers and individuals diagnosed with MS for research talks, guided tours of neuroimaging facilities, and hands-on demonstrations in the MRI lab, VR environments, and robotics applications. Participants engaged directly with scientists and experienced innovative tools including haptics-based interfaces, therapeutic gaming, biofeedback assessments such as a modernized 9-Peg Hole Test, and game-based measures of processing speed, as well as virtual-reality platforms designed to monitor visual changes associated with optic neuritis. The event strengthened community partnerships and underscored NYUAD’s growing impact in MS research and translational science.

Jeremy Teo (Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering) and the LIBRA lab disseminated a range of research findings across international venues between September and November 2025. The team delivered presentations at the 34th Annual Conference of the European Society for Biomaterials (ESB) in Turin. Brian Quartey (PhD student) received the Best Oral Presentation Award for his talk Mimicking Tumor ECM: How Aligned Matrices Reshape Dendritic Cell Metabolism and Migration. In addition, Mei ElGindi (Research Associate) was selected as one of seven abstracts for an oral presentation at the Nature Conference on Engineered Models of Human Disease in Belgrade, presenting Engineering Functional 3D Lymphoid Tissues From Stem Cell-Derived Fibroblastic Reticular Cells for Human Immune Modeling and Personalized Antibody Responses.

Yasir Zaki (Assistant Professor of Computer Science) and his team were selected as winners of the 2025 IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Challenge for their project SONIC, which uses FM radio and SMS to provide low-cost internet access in underserved regions. The award recognizes innovations that expand digital inclusion and help bridge the global connectivity gap, with judges praising the project’s practicality and its potential for significant social impact.

The NYUAD iGEM team won a Gold Medal and the Best Integrated Human Practices Award at the 2025 global competition in Paris — the first special prize for NYUAD and any UAE team. Led by Professors Rafael (Yong-Ak) Song, Andras Gyorgy, and Ibrahim Chehade, the students — Shafiya Sabah, Abdullah Salman, Heesung Tae, Milena Bisenic, Udaya Pandit, Sid Kong, Keya Shah, Aneeka Paul, Jehan Nakaweh, Deborah Bahiru Sisay, Hiyath Peiris, Bethel Sisay, Heewon (Lily) Lee, Aman Sunesh, Nataliya Sakharova, Diperson Thapa, Sara Badar, Salma Mansour, and Arda Bakici — focused on Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG). They engaged with families, clinicians, and scientists to ensure the project addressed real community needs, demonstrating deep commitment to Integrated Human Practices. The award recognizes their collaboration, community engagement, and cross-disciplinary approach, marking a transformative achievement for the students and for NYUAD.