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Illegal goods can have deadly consequences. Whether it’s a counterfeit face mask that doesn’t provide a frontline worker adequate protection from COVID-19, or a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl (a synthetic painkiller 50-100 times more potent than morphine), millions of lives can be at risk. A multidisciplinary team of researchers and students at �������� is working to stop such criminal activity. Thanks to a nearly $650,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF)—and a $16,000 grant supplement awarded to two undergraduates on the team—they will be investigating how to disrupt illicit supply chains, influence policy, and ultimately save lives.

The Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has awarded a $2 million grant to �������� to further the advancement of forensic science.

Faculty members Holly Matto, Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, Stephanie Carmack, and Nathalia Peixoto, and graduate student Matthew Scherbel, are working with Brightline Interactive to examine the effects of recovery cues, using virtual reality simulations, on neurophysiological regulation to prevent drug relapse.

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted thousands of jobs online, allowing employees to telework and avoid congested roadways. That’s good for slowing the spread of the virus, but new research from �������� also shows such habits could limit people’s exposure to harmful traffic pollution.

Around the world, environmental crises are making headlines, from the potential extinction of species and ecosystems to climate change. Students in ��������’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy (ESP) are driven to make a change. This year five PhD students in the department received grants from the Cosmos Club Foundation to tackle a wide range of conservation efforts.

School of Business professor Mahesh P. Joshi created BiggieBills after searching for years for an interactive strategy game to use in his classes.

Saving an endangered species is possible, but it takes a village. Conservationists, including three �������� alumni working at the Smithsonian and a current student, are part of the team at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) and the Smithsonian-Mason School of Conservation (SMSC) working to ensure red pandas move off the endangered list.

More than 100 PhD students from electrical and bioengineering, data science, computer science, neuroscience and the social sciences, including some with disabilities, will be trained to use state-of-the-art data analytic methods and wearable computing technologies based on novel transdisciplinary competencies, applications and practice curriculum.

The pop-up traffic garden at the Child Development Center on Mason's Fairfax �������� was a dry run for Mason research that will begin in late August at two Washington, D.C., public elementary schools.

With a twist or shake of your wrist, your smartphone can interpret motion to take a picture, turn on a light, and more. Last year, �������� computer science professors Parth Pathak and Huzefa Rangwala were brainstorming how similar technology could help society in even greater ways. Their idea? To automatically translate sign language into text or speech.

Smithsonian Magazine’s editorial team was busy planning their January 2019 issue on America’s involvement in armed conflicts. They wanted to assess the current military and veteran communities’ opinions of hot-topic cultural, political and sexual issues—so they reached out to �������� for expertise in designing the poll and analyzing its results.

What would it take for one group in a conflict to be more compassionate toward their “enemy”? Researchers from ��������’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) and the Department of Psychology are heading to Rondine—a two-year “laboratory for peace”—to find out.