911±¬ÁÏ

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 911±¬ÁÏ'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.

Jessye Gassel has always been fascinated with spinning bodies. Gassel found herself looking forward to her high school physics class every day and knew, by junior year, that she would pursue it in college. A senior-year astronomy class honed that direction toward astrophysics.

911±¬ÁÏ doctoral student Caroline Toth looks at how adolescents’ social media use is associated with the structure of their in-person friendship networks. Her research shows that friendships were more likely among youth with similar levels of problematic social media use and digital status seeking.

Loveline Phillips never contemplated the academic path she found at the Schar School. But now that she’s discovered how her research skills can help others, there’s no stopping her.

911±¬ÁÏ recently held its first-ever Qualitative Research Day, an event for PhD students of all disciplines to engage in hands-on and interactive opportunities with the goal of learning new qualitative research techniques and methodologies. The inaugural event is the latest innovation in 911±¬ÁÏ’s ongoing efforts to find new ways to support its PhD students.

As a doctoral student at 911±¬ÁÏ, Jordan Sims has spent the past several years immersed, literally and figuratively, in the underwater ecosystems of Honduras, where her research is helping solve real-world challenges in coral reef conservation.

Tiphanie Raffegeau of 911±¬ÁÏ â€™s School of Kinesiology in the College of Education and Human Development, and Christopher Rhea, Old Dominion University’s associate dean for Research and Innovation in Ellmer College of Health Sciences have been awarded a 4-VA grant to study the use of virtual reality to prevent falls in older adults.

A partnership between the Brazilian Air Force and the College of Engineering and Computing is yielding explosive results in blast research, in what one faculty members describes as a win-win collaboration.

Wrongful convictions can upend lives, particularly those of high schoolers, and can result in students becoming part of the school-to-prison pipeline. Talley Bettens, a doctoral candidate in 911±¬ÁÏ’s Department of Criminology, Law and Society, seeks to trace this issue to its roots: adolescent behavior and environment.