Georgia State University celebrated excellence in research, scholarship and creative activity across the university at the 2025 Ignite Awards, held March 27. The awards are given to faculty, staff and postdoctoral researchers and students whose work has tremendous impact by advancing knowledge, solving complex problems, creating new innovations and enhancing the quality of life in Georgia and beyond.

“The Ignite Awards stand as a celebration of the groundbreaking work and innovative spirit that defines Georgia State,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Nicolle Parsons-Pollard. “They honor those who have dared to venture into new realms of possibility and ignite the spark of curiosity and passion for learning.”

“It’s an honor to celebrate these individuals from our outstanding research community,” said Interim Vice President for Research and Economic Development Donald Hamelberg. “Their impact extends far beyond Georgia State, whether through educating students, delivering insights that shape our city and state, or building up the bank of essential knowledge and creativity that benefits the broader world.”

This year’s winners include:

Doctoral Research Achievement Award: Kyle M. Jensen, College of Arts & Sciences

• Jensen’s contributions to neuroimaging methods have been prolific, and include the development of an innovative functional brain atlas that has catalyzed many collaborative projects exploring disrupted functional brain circuitry in psychiatric populations. His most recent efforts use this atlas to identify disruptions in connectivity in resting-state fMRIs with great promise as reliable imaging markers of schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder considered to be one of the leading causes of disability worldwide.

Postdoctoral Research Achievement Award: Carolin M. Lieber, Institute for Biomedical Sciences

• Lieber’s research focus includes the development of antivirals against a variety of RNA viruses including SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus and RSV. Major achievements of her postdoctoral work include the first demonstration of treatment benefit for long-COVID-like disease in immunocompromised hosts, the characterization of a novel drug candidate for the treatment of influenza virus infections and the development of a broad-spectrum paramyxovirus inhibitor. She currently leads the maximum biocontainment research team in the lab of Regents’ Professor and Distinguished University Professor Richard Plemper, developing much-needed therapeutics against highly pathogenic Nipah virus.

Early Career Research Impact Award in Natural and Physical Sciences: Armin Iraji, College of Arts & Sciences

• Iraji’s work sits at the intersection of biomedical imaging, artificial intelligence and neuroscience, focusing on developing advanced computational methods in neuroimaging and data science to comprehensively map brain functional dynamics. His research has provided novel insights into brain development, aging and various neurological and psychiatric conditions. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier journals and presented at leading international conferences.

Early Career Research Impact Award in Social and Behavioral Sciences: Daniel S. Andrews, J. Mack Robinson College of Business

• Andrews’ research targets global strategy and the institutions that shape environments in which organizations compete. In his three years on faculty, he has published 18 peer-reviewed articles in his field’s top journals, with as many more in advanced stages. He also serves as the reviewing editor for the Journal of World Business and associate editor of the Journal of Business Research, collectively handling over 600 manuscripts annually. In addition, he has organized paper development workshops for the top-ranked Journal of International Business Studies, supporting efforts to mentor other early career peers.

Research Administration Excellence Award: Candice Lynn Ferguson, University Research Services & Administration

• Ferguson has built one of the strongest training programs for grants administrators in the region and has become a campus expert in this area. In her current role as director of research operations improvement and training for the Office of Research, she is streamlining business operations and implementing professional development programs for faculty and staff across all areas of research administration. She has also taught several workshops and published articles related to human capital and training development. In addition, Ferguson collaborated on the grant-sponsored Access to Careers in Research Administration program, a college-to-career pipeline for GSU graduate students to start careers as research administrators.

Research Mentorship Award: Michelle Zoss, College of Education & Human Development

• Zoss began her work while teaching art and English in elementary and high schools, and her research focuses on bringing visual arts and literacy together. As a research mentor, she has served on 80 doctoral student committees, with 22 as major adviser. For the English Education master’s program, she has advised more than 160 new English teachers who work across Georgia, the U.S. and several countries abroad. Her advisees have flourished with tenure-track faculty positions in universities, leadership positions in school districts and teacher of the year awards.

Faculty Research Partnership Award: Jonathan Isaac Smith, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

• Smith has spent the last seven years developing a research-practice partnership with Achieve Atlanta, an organization that provides college scholarships and support services to graduates of Atlanta Public Schools high schools who have financial need. What started as a straightforward evaluation on the impacts of the organization on college enrollment, persistence and completion has developed into a deeper and lasting partnership. Together with the Georgia Policy Labs in the Andrew Young School, Smith continues to conduct and support research on the financial, academic and long-term impacts of the organization’s efforts.

Research, Scholarship and Creativity Award: Marilynn Richtarik, College of Arts & Sciences

• Richtarik’s published scholarship has explored the intersection of creative writing, history and politics in Ireland. Her most recent book, “Getting to Good Friday: Literature and the Peace Process in Northern Ireland,” focuses on the changes in thought and language in the divided society that brought 30 years of political violence to a close with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Her research has been supported by the Rhodes Trust, the Killam Trusts, the American Philosophical Society, the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and she was a 2017 U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Queen’s University Belfast. In addition, she has brought many of Ireland’s most prominent writers, including two Booker Prize finalists, to speak at GSU and other venues in metro Atlanta.

Research Impact Award – Representatives from the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS Center), including Founding Director Vince D. Calhoun, Armin Iraji, Dong Hye Ye, Jiayu Chen, Jingyu Liu, Maria Misiura, C. Nikki Arrington, Sergey Plis and Zening Fu

• The tri-institutional TReNDS Center is a collaborative initiative among Georgia State University, Georgia Tech and Emory University dedicated to advancing the understanding of the human brain through innovative analytical methods and neuroinformatics tools. By integrating brain imaging and omics data, TReNDS aims to develop biomarkers that enhance brain health and address neurological diseases.

For more information about Georgia State research and its impact, visit research.gsu.edu.