CISAC Fellows spend the academic year engaged in research and writing, participating in seminars and interacting and collaborating with leading faculty and researchers.  The CISAC fellowship provides an unparalleled opportunity for scholars and professionals to explore complex international problems and innovative solutions in a collegial and collaborative environment.

We’d like to thank the individual donors and foundations who made these fellowships possible, in particular the MacArthur Foundation for its support for the MacArthur Hennessey Nuclear Security Fellow and the Motwani Jadeja Foundation for the support for the U.S. India Security Fellowships.

MEET THE FELLOWS

Prior to coming to CISAC as the MacArthur Hennessey Nuclear Security Fellow in 2025, Kevin was a Hans J. Morgenthau Fellow at the Notre Dame International Security Center in 2023-2024. He completed his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Notre Dame in August 2024. Before graduate school, Kevin was a high school teacher for the Miami-Dade County Public School system where he taught English, World History, and Ethics.

Kevin has published in Security Studies and the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. His research focuses on racism and international security and he is interested in the structural causes of racial equality and inequality in the international system including how interstate competition affects patterns of racial domination. A significant part of his research focus is concerned with how racism shapes our understanding of nuclear politics.

Hadar David is a CISAC fellow and a JSD candidate at Stanford Law School. His research explores the intersection of law, philosophy, and the biosciences, with a particular focus on the ethics, regulation, and governance of emerging biological technologies. He holds a JSM from Stanford Law School, an LLB from Tel Aviv University, and an MPhil from Bar-Ilan University, where he is currently a PhD candidate in philosophy.

His philosophical research examines the content of core principles of biomedical ethics, especially non-maleficence and beneficence. His legal research focuses on how genetic technologies involving non-human animals should be regulated and governed. Building on this work, his current project examines how the benefits of biological research should be understood, assessed, and weighed alongside its risks, with applications to high-risk virology research and genetic technologies.

Jacob is pursuing a Ph.D. in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He is a National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Nonproliferation and International Safeguards Fellow and works as an intern in the International Safeguards & Engagements Department at Sandia National Laboratories.

Jacob’s research focuses on radiation detection for nuclear nonproliferation, international safeguards, and arms control applications, with an emphasis on advanced reactor systems. His work includes the experimental characterization of radiation detectors along with modeling detector responses to safeguards-relevant molten salt reactor signatures for nuclear safeguards applications. He is interested in how technically informed policy and safeguards approaches can strengthen nuclear security.

In his free time, Jacob enjoys live music, basketball, and hiking, and he has visited more than 60 national park sites.

Deborah is a United States Air Force Tanker Pilot with 18 years of tactical, operational, and strategic experience ranging from U.S. Strategic Command, Air Mobility Command, and Air Combat Command. She holds a Master of Arts in Strategic Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Ethics and Emerging Military Technology from the U.S. Naval War College, where she was a Distinguished Graduate with high distinction, and a Master of Arts from Webster University in International Relations. Deborah has published research papers on leadership and AI-based predictive policing and its implications for the Department of Defense.

Deborah’s primary research focus is on the ethics of AI and the integration of automated systems into the military, great power competition, and strategic readiness.

Rikio Inouye is an incoming Assistant Professor of Political Science at Temple University in Philadelphia. Prior to coming to CISAC, he was a Prize Fellow in Social Sciences at Princeton University, earning his Ph.D. in 2026.  Before graduate school, Rikio taught high school English, Global Studies, and Speech/Debate in Toyama, Japan as part of the Japan Exchange Teaching (JET) Program (2017-2020).

Rikio’s research examines how racial and religious identities alter foreign policy preferences and support. One strand of research focuses on conflict and specifically, how belligerents' identities moderate third-party public support and sympathy.  Another considers how signals of inclusion and representation alter public support for foreign aid.  Additionally,  he has a number of projects focusing on democratic solidarity, backsliding, and cooperation amidst international crises. Rikio utilizes survey experiments, interviews, and case studies.

Rikio is a proud UC Berkeley alumni! He marched in Cal Band for four years, performing at the Great Wall of China, across Japan, and in the Superbowl 50 halftime show. Rikio is also active in the US-Japan space and also regularly volunteers at the annual Heart Mountain Pilgrimage, where his family was incarcerated during World War II.

Alongside being a CISAC predoctoral U.S. India Security fellow, Nivedita is a Ph.D. Candidate in Government at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in International Relations. She has also been awarded a M.A. in Government at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to graduate studies at UT Austin, she graduated summa cum laude from State University of New York at Oswego, majoring in Political Science and Global & International Studies. She is also a graduate fellow at the Clements Center of National Security and History.

Nivedita’s research examines how war and international law is perceived by global audiences. Specifically, she looks at how countries and citizens not involved in a foreign event, perceive and react to them. Within this agenda, she examines public opinion, foreign policy, and information dynamics of international events (like war) by focusing on India as a running case. Other research projects also examine international security more broadly, and the intersection between politics and emerging technologies.

When she's not working, Nivedita enjoys playing competitive pickleball, practicing and improving her German language skills, and creating social science short-form content for wider consumption.

Elsa Kania has been an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Center for a New American Security's Technology and National Security Program. She was a fellow with the Penn Project on the Future of U.S.-China Relations (2025) and Research Fellow with the Modern War Institute at West Point (2026). She has also been a Visiting Scholar at the DKI Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (2025).

Elsa’s research has focused on China's military strategy, command capabilities, defense innovation, and emerging technological developments. She is also specializing in issues including Taiwan's defense, cross-Strait dynamics, and deterrence challenges.

In her spare time, Elsa is training for her first marathon and first Olympic-distance triathlon.

Michael is a career military officer with experience as an Army logistician and Foreign Area Officer focusing on sub-Saharan Africa. He holds a Bachelor of Science from Xavier University and a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Michael’s primary research focus is on effective engagement strategies in Africa that promote stability and governance while advancing long-term U.S. partnerships and interests on the continent.

Michael’s favorite hobby is exploring nature with my wife and son. He has lived, worked, and traveled extensively on the African continent and is passionate about wildlife photography.

Major Robert Magill is joining CISAC during the AY2026-27 as an Air Force National Defense Fellow and visiting scholar. Robert is a career defensive cyberwarfare operations officer for the United States Air Force and most recently served as the Director of Operations presenting rapid, tailored, and mission ready cyber forces in the defense of the Air Force’s and Department of War’s critical mission assets.

Robert’s research has focused on network defense capabilities, cyber threat intelligence, and advanced persistence threats on the international stage. He is interested in continued technological advancement and cyber defense with a specific focus on geopolitics in the Pacific theater.

Johannes Ponge is a postdoctoral fellow at CISAC. He holds a Master’s degree in Information Systems and a doctorate in Infectious Disease Modeling. He is a founding member of the German Modeling Network for Severe Infectious Diseases from Münster University, Germany. Prior to joining CISAC, Johannes was a senior researcher at the University of Münster, Germany, and served on the board of the Interdisciplinary Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Disease Dynamics. In these roles, he led the development of multiple epidemic modeling frameworks across interdisciplinary teams.

His research focuses on the use of mathematical modeling to inform public health policymaking during emerging infectious disease epidemics. In particular, he examines how non-pharmaceutical intervention strategies can be designed to protect population health while also considering their wider social, educational, and economic effects, drawing on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the past few years, Raymond has sharpened his research and application of AI for business and warfighting applications. He served as the Principal Investigator to a National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) as part of his entrepreneurial work. Raymond studied advanced project management and organizational theory as part of his graduate studies at Northern Arizona University and holds a certificate from Stanford in Strategic Decision and Risk.

We've already seen a seismic change in global narrative competition with the advent of social media. Raymond is focusing his research on how AI is accelerating this disruption and impact of a post-trust era. Coloring this research is network theory as it applies to global systems that emerge from the underlying networks. It is the societal networks that drive outcomes activated policy through communications. AI accelerates this faster than ever before in the history of mankind and merits inquiry.

As an Army Reservist, Raymond lived three lives, one as a banker, one as an international affairs officer, and lastly as an entrepreneur. He holds patents in applied AI and is a frequent contributor to the US banking industry on matters concerning AI. His military career focused on human-level international security that has taken me to unique places with first-hand experiences in Korea and the Philippines.

Before coming to CISAC as a U.S. India Security fellow, Marc was a PhD candidate in History at the University of Connecticut. His writing has been published in Technology and Culture and the Journal of Military History. Marc’s research has been supported by the Fulbright US Student Program, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

His research investigates the history of Indian development, especially economically and scientifically, pre-and-post-independence. Marc’s dissertation, which he will revise into a book, is a diplomatic, political, and intellectual history of India’s atomic energy program, using its research of the atom as a lens to better understand the country’s thinking and actions during the Cold War and beyond. The project views India’s atomic energy program as a transnational project shaped by Indian and non-Indian actors.

When he is not teaching or researching Indian history, Marc enjoys hearing live music, watching old movies, and exploring new museums.

Ben graduated from the University of North Dakota in 2005 with a Bachelor of Science in Commercial Aviation, and subsequently earned his Master's degree in Adult Education and Leadership from Kansas State University in 2018. While he does not have traditional classroom teaching experience, Ben has conducted numerous leader development events aimed at junior officers, specifically tailored to the objective of military professional development.

Ben plans to study sustainment and logistics throughout the Pacific Theater of War during World War II, and how those operations impact current modernization and political evolutions within the United States.

At Columbia University, Cheyenne was a Weatherhead East Asian Institute Fellow from 2020–2021. From 2023–2025, she worked at the Rand Corporation as a summer associate and adjunct researcher, where her work has explored Russian thinking on the military use of space, the evolving use of space in the Russo-Ukrainian war, and adversary perspectives on the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems in recent and future conflicts.

Cheyenne’s research interests include nuclear weapons, emerging technology, and arms racing. Her dissertation, "Private Arms, Public Consequences: Rethinking Arms Competition and War in the Age of U.S. Defense Industry Privatization", analyzes how the post–Cold War transformation of the U.S. defense industry affects the dynamics of global arms racing and the connection between arms racing and war.