doctoral students

Cora Sula, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology at George Mason University, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study artificial intelligence in classrooms in Estonia this fall.

PhD student Shiwei Hong developed a collaborative multi-agent AI system that mimics a comedy writers’ room, demonstrating that discussion and feedback among agents improve the quality of machine-generated humor.

Aayush Yadav co-authored a paper that received a Distinguished Paper Award from the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, one of the industry’s premier conferences in the security field.

Oakley Hill, a PhD candidate at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, leverages Root Narrative Theory (RNT) to analyze how political narratives shape public perception, ideology, and voting behavior in the United States. His research, including the national Justice Languages of America Survey, highlights the distinct ways liberals, conservatives, and moderates interpret political conflict while advancing practical conflict resolution through mediation and facilitation work.

Beginning a PhD is rarely straightforward. Beginning one just as the world shuts down adds an entirely new dimension to adaptability. For George Mason University biosciences PhD student Matthew Lefkowitz, that quality would come to define his doctoral journey.

When doctoral student Rooshna Mohsin arrived at George Mason University from New Jersey, she came with a clear purpose: to deepen her research in environmental and reproductive health and work alongside faculty whose scholarship aligned with her own ambitions.

George Mason University doctoral candidate Jolypich Pek is using advanced statistical modeling in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to address complex physics problems and support the development of faster, more computationally efficient scientific simulation tools.

George Mason University PhD candidate in environmental engineering Xiaorong Shan was selected as a COVES Policy Fellow, where she will apply data‑driven research to support environmental justice and regulatory decision‑making at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality this summer.

Megan Sharkey is hoping her research on teacher well-being will give districts and divisions the insights needed to get teachers the support they need.

On February 11, 2026, Olesya Vartanyan, a first-year PhD student at George Mason's Carter School and conflict analyst with more than 15 years of field experience in the South Caucasus, took part in a congressional briefing on the political situation in Georgia. The event was hosted by the U.S. Helsinki Commission, a bipartisan body bringing together members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.