Meet The Team
J.P. Singh
J.P. (Principal Investigator for Minerva and CASE) is Distinguished University Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnership at George Mason University. He is also Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow with the Robert Bosch Academy, Berlin. He works at the intersection of technology, culture and political economy in global contexts examining transformative impacts from provision of telephone service in poor countries, to the use of AI in global value chains in cutting-edge industries. J.P. has consulted or advised international organizations such as the British Council, UNESCO, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, and conducted field research in 36 countries. His current book project explores AI and innovation in Germany, India, and the United States. A winner of numerous research awards and fellowships, he has written 10 books and over 100 scholarly articles.
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Key Skills: Political economy of AI in comparative contexts
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Superpower: "Jugaad" (a colloquial South Asian term, referring to problem-solving innovation, often termed a "hack")
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Michael A. Hunzeker
Michael A. Hunzeker (Minerva) is an associate professor at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, the associate director of the Schar School’s Center for Security Policy Studies, and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. A former Marine Corps officer, he works on conventional deterrence, defense reform, and organizational learning.
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Key skills: International security and national defense
Superpower: The intellectual humility that comes with middle age.
Jesse L Kirkpatrick
Jesse Kirkpatrick (Minerva and CASE) is a Research Associate Professor and the Acting Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University. He is also an International Security Fellow at New America and serves as a consultant for numerous organizations. His research is interdisciplinary, cutting across such fields as Philosophy, Political Science, Public Policy, and the Life and Computer Sciences. At its core, it aims to explore two central, interrelated themes: (1) how a suite of technologies, singularly and in convergence, impact peace and security, and (2) what the ethical, social, and policy implications of these impacts may be.
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Key Skills: Peace and security, with an emphasis on technology.
Superpower: The ability to conjure the sound of dial-up internet while playing on a Commodore 64.
Naoru Koizumi
Dr. Naoru Koizumi (CASE) is Professor of Public Policy and the Associate Director of Research and Grants at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. She specializes in medical policies, particularly in the fields of organ transplantation and end-stage kidney and liver diseases. Her research focuses on the applications of various quantitative methods such as biostatistics, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), simulation and mathematical optimization to analyze various clinical and policy questions related to organ transplantation and other chronic disease treatments. Her projects funded by NIH and NSF include simulations and optimizations of organ allocation (NIH-R21) and bed allocation in a mental health system (NIH-R21 & R01), simulation of slum expansion in India (NSF) and mathematical analysis of illicit kidney trade networks (NSF). Her grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation investigated effectiveness of ICT-based interventions designed to enhance medication adherence among Tuberculosis patients in India.​
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Key skills: Medical/Bio-statistics, Liver and Kidney Failures and Transplantation, GIS and Spatial Statistics
Superpower: Make people around me “unique”
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Aydin Guven
Aydin Guven (Doctoral Research Assistant, Communication Manager, Minerva and CASE) is a 3rd year PhD student in Political Science at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. He holds a BA and MA in International Relations from Istanbul Medeniyet University, Turkey. His research focuses on Asia-Pacific security, India’s role in US-China competition, and political economy of AI. He has published articles on Indian foreign policy and opinion pieces relevant to South Asian policy and security. Guven speaks five languages.​
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Key Skills: Asia-Pacific security/political economy, and organizational skills
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Superpower: Belief and passion for learning!
Georgios Zacharias
Georgios (Minerva) is a 3rd year PhD student in Political Science at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. He holds a BA in Political Science from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and a MA in International Security from SciencesPo Paris with a double concentration in East Asian Studies and Diplomacy. His research focuses on extended deterrence, perceptions of US credibility, and the role of AI in defense applications. He has published articles on Japanese foreign policy and opinion pieces relevant to policy, hosted by The Diplomat magazine among others. He speaks five languages and has prior experience in the private, public and military sectors.​
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Key Skills: International security and qualitative methods
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Superpower: Learning languages and building legos fast.
Pete Larsen
Pete Larsen (Minerva), a former Director for South Asia Regional Affairs on the White House's National Security Council serving across both Trump and Biden administrations, is a national security expert with extensive experience in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. His distinguished career in the United States Air Force as a Foreign Area Officer included roles as South Asia Division Chief on the Joint Staff and political-military advisor to the Assistant Secretary of the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau at the Department of State. He commanded the 818th Mobility Support Advisory Squadron, leading Building Partnerships missions in Africa, and served as Attaché to Israel. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science with an International Relations concentration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an MBA from Webster University, a Master's in Middle East Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School, and a Master's in National Security Strategy from the National War College, where he later served as a faculty member. Proficient in Arabic, Hebrew, and German, Pete is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Public Policy at George Mason University's Schar School, focusing on the governance of Artificial Intelligence.
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Key Skills: National Security Strategy and Interagency Expertise
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Superpower: A relentless drive to help others succeed
Amarda Shehu
Amarda (Co-Principal Investigator for Minerva and CASE) is a Professor of Computer Science and Associate Vice President of Research for the Institute of Digital InnovAtion. During 2019-2022, Amarda co-directed the Transdisciplinary Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnerships and served as an NSF Program Director in the CISE Directorate.
Amarda considers herself an interdisciplinary scientist. Her research record includes foundational advances in AI, Machine Learning, and Algorithmics, and purposeful research that pushes the barriers of our understanding of the physical world. Amarda has a galvanizing view of computing and relentless energy and advocacy for the advancement of knowledge across scientific disciplines and the improvement of the human condition.
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Key Skills: Broad knowledge on Old/Classic and New/Deep AI.
Superpower: Brings a cheerful spirit and "AI zen" to the team.
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Antonios Anastasopoulos
Antonis Anastasopoulos (Minerva) is an assistant professor at George Mason University's Computer Science Department. He is interested in various aspects of multilingual Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, with a main focus on Machine Translation and Speech Recognition for endangered languages and low-resource settings in general.
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Key skills: Natural Language Processing, Machine Translation
Superpower: Passion for saving endangered languages
Terry L. Clower
Terry L. Clower (CASE) is Northern Virginia Chair and Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. He is director of GMU’s Center for Regional Analysis. The Center provides economic and public policy research services to sponsors in the private, non-profit and public sectors. He also leads the Stephen S. Fuller Institute for Research on the Washington Region’s Economic Future. Prior to joining GMU, he was director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas. Dr. Clower also has almost ten years of private sector experience in transportation, logistics, and site location management.
Dr. Clower has authored or co-authored over 250 articles, book chapters, and research reports reflecting experience in economic and community development, land use planning, labor market analysis, real estate market analysis, economic and fiscal impact analysis, transportation, and economic and market forecasting. His scholarly articles have appeared in Economic Development Quarterly; Urban Studies; Economic Development Review; Regional Studies, Regional Science; the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies; Sustaining Regions; and Applied Research in Economic Development. He co-authored the textbook Globalization, Planning and Local Economic Development with Prof. Andrew Beer of the University of South Australia (Taylor-Francis, London, 2020).
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Dr. Clower received a B.S. in Marine Transportation from Texas A&M University in 1982, a M.S. in Applied Economics from the University of North Texas in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Information Sciences from the University of North Texas in 1997 specializing in information infrastructure policy and the use of information resources.
Key skills: Economic Development and Policy, Regional Development, Quantitative methods, Transportation policy
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Superpower: Ability to see the connections across an economic eco-system to see how regions can become more competitive
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Manpriya Dua
Manpriya Dua (Minerva) is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at George Mason University. Her research centers Machine Learning, focusing on Deep Learning architectures for Natural Language Processing (NLP). She holds a Master's in Science degree in Computer Science from George Mason University, and has worked with Palo Alto Research Center on a DARPA project investigating the use of NLP methods for military defense strategy.​
Key Skills: Machine Learning knowledge and experience, with a focus on NLP
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Superpower: Her positive attitude and problem solving skills.
Neelam Shukla
Neelam Shukla (Project Manager, Minerva) is a Ph. D student in Public Policy at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University. She holds two master’s degrees: MA in Economics from India and MA in Public Management from Johns Hopkins University. As an officer of the Indian Revenue Service with the Government of India, she has extensive experience as tax administrator in various capacities across India.
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Key Skills: Tax fraud investigations and tax audits of big corporates.
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Superpower: An unending passion to learn something new.
Syeda Sabrina Akter
Sabrina (Minerva) is a fourth-year PhD student in Computer Science at George Mason University, specializing in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Models (LLMs). Her research focuses on developing AI-driven systems for analyzing extensive documents in different languages, reducing the need for human intervention in high-stakes decision-making. She also has experience in Speech Recognition and Translation tasks and works under Prof. Antonis Anastasopoulos in GMU's NLP lab.
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Key Skills: NLP, LLM Applications, Machine Learning, Deep Learning
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Superpower: Positive attitude and problem-solving skills
Sonali Chowdhary
Sonali Chowdhary (Project manager, CASE) is a third-year Ph.D. student in Public Policy at the Schar School for Policy and Government, George Mason University. She has over two decades of experience in inclusive economic development across emerging markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Sonali has held managerial, leadership and consulting roles within multilateral development organizations, public programs, nonprofits, and purpose-driven businesses. Her research interests lie in leveraging policy, data analytics, and emerging technologies such as AI to drive social impact.
She holds a Master of Science in International Development from the University of Bath, UK, and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, India.
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Key skills: Technology for development, Enabling ecosystems for purpose-driven businesses, Program and policy evaluation, Rural and Agriculture finance, Enterprise, value chain and supply chain development.
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Superpower: Crealogical thinker (creative +logical) with ability to simplify complex problems while maintaining calm
Former Team Members
Caroline Wesson
Caroline Wesson (former Project Manager) is a PhD student and Presidential Scholar studying Political Science at George Mason University. She is currently working on her dissertation which focuses on innovation policy, specifically innovation clusters around the globe. Caroline holds a B.S. and M.S. in International Affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology and has worked in research positions at the RAND Corporation and the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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Key Skills: Organizational skills and knowledge about national innovation systems
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Superpower: Her can-do attitude and eagerness to learn something new every day!
William "Webby" Applegate
Webby Applegate is an MA student in Philosophy at George Mason University and a Graduate Research Assistant for the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy. His research is mainly focused around two questions: how to make good decisions; and how to run a country well. Webby holds a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Economics from Wittenberg University. In addition to his research position, William has experience in multiple startup companies and is currently working on his thesis on philosophy and uncertainty.
Key Skills: Critical thinking and ability to learn quickly. Ability to make new and meaningful connections across subject matter and topic.
Superpower: Focus on progress over perfection and willingness to fail.
Vasilii Nosov
Vasilii Nosov is a PhD in Public Policy student at Schar School and a Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Advancing Human-Machine Partnership. His research interests lie in the intersection of economics, international relations, and institutional and technological transfer. Vasilii holds a Master of Science degree in Economics from Tufts University.
Key Skills: analytical way of thinking and international experience.
Superpower: polyglot striving to acquire new knowledge.