In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted lives worldwide,Greema Regmibegan her Ph.D. in UMBC’s atmospheric physics program. Studying remotely from her home in Nepal, she navigated a grueling schedule due to the time difference.

“One class started at 1 a.m. Nepal time, and one final went until 4:30 a.m.,” she recalls. Yet, she embraced the challenge. “I didn’t mind. I like working at night, so it worked for me. And because of COVID, I had nothing else to do. At least this way, I was making progress towards my studies.” 

Now in her fifth year, Regmi’s perseverance has earned her NASA’s prestigious Future Investigators in NASA Earth and Space Science and Technology (FINESST) fellowship, which will provide up to $50,000 annually for up to three years to fuel her research on atmospheric dust.

Regmi’s passion for atmospheric physics took root in Nepal. For an undergraduate project, she analyzed meteorological factors surrounding a tragic local plane crash. “Nepal has a lot of hills and mountains, so it channels wind in certain directions,” she explains. “Based on my analysis, unexpected turbulence could have been a factor in the crash.”

As a senior at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal, Regmi traveled to the U.S. for the first time, to present at the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting. The event was a turning point in her scientific trajectory. 

“I really liked sharing my work in front of a huge crowd. Everybody was listening, and that boosted my confidence,” she says. In Nepal, it sometimes felt like research was a lower priority, but the U.S. offered a fresh stage for her work, Regmi says: “The AGU meeting was great—people appreciated my work. That was a huge motivation to continue and do grad school.”

Decoding dust for climate science

Regmi’s FINESST-funded research aims to improve the accuracy of climate forecasting by refining how atmospheric dust is accounted for in climate models. How dust scatters light affects how much heat is reflected back to space versus absorbed. She combines data from LiDAR and multi-angle polarimeters, such as NASA’s Research Scanning Polarimeter, to analyze dust’s role. 

“A polarimeter measures how much radiation you see from the top of the atmosphere,” integrating information from every atmospheric layer, “versus LiDAR, which gives you information on each layer of the atmosphere separately. So when you combine both of those, you have a very rich dataset,” she explains.

Regmi’s work challenges outdated assumptions. “Our existing models assume that dust has a simple shape, such as spherical, but for a long time we’ve known that it isn’t that simple,” she says. In her work, she models dust as hexahedral instead—a 3D shape with six faces. The most familiar hexahedron is a cube, but the angles can shift to make it more or less pointy. 

Regmi was surprised by how much using a spheroid versus hexahedral model for dust affects the overall climate models she is investigating. “I did not expect the shape of dust particles that tiny to have such a huge impact. And that was very exciting for me,” she says. 

Her research focuses on dust traveling across the Atlantic Ocean from the Sahara Desert. The solid, dark ocean background makes it much easier to pull out clean information about dust, avoiding uncertainty introduced by variegated background landscapes, like the shadows that form in mountain ranges or a wide range of vegetation colors. Improved climate models based on her work could inform decision-making related to climate resilience and mitigation.

A community that lifts you up

Regmi has been able to accomplish so much in part because of the supportive community she found at UMBC, after finally arriving on campus in fall 2021. Her Ph.D. advisor, Vanderlei Martins, professor of physics and director of UMBC’s Earth and Space Institute, fosters a collaborative lab. 

“Vanderlei is a great professor, but what I really appreciate about him is the group that he has built over years. Everybody in the group is as supportive as he is,” Regmi says. “He has done so much in the field, yet he’s still so humble.”

The positive feelings are mutual. “From the very first classes it was obvious that Greema had great potential and tremendous enthusiasm to learn, to grow scientifically, and to work with others,” Martins says.

Regmi is co-advised by Reed Espinosa, Ph.D. ’17, atmospheric physics, a research physical scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. “He is an outstanding mentor—patient, thorough, and always encouraging,” Regmi says. “Most of what I know about conducting research I have learned from him.” And Espinosa learned much of that from Martins, who was his own Ph.D. advisor. 

Pengwang Zhai, professor of physics, has been another mentor. “Regmi is a hardworking and intelligent student,” Zhai says. Despite starting her Ph.D. during the pandemic, “she embraced the difficulties, overcame steep learning curves, and has grown into a valuable member of the atmospheric physics program.”

Martins highlights her cohort’s strength. “Regmi has joined an enthusiastic group of Ph.D. students in the atmospheric physics program at UMBC, who have clearly shown that together we are better, and can go farther,” he says. 

Regmi values the camaraderie. “In Vanderlei’s group, people help you in every way they can,” she says. Her office near the elevator sparks connections. “Every time someone comes up, they will stop to say ‘hi.’ I’ve made a lot of friends and learned so much from them,” she shares. “I like my department a lot.”

Bridging two worlds

Regmi’s journey bridges her unique perspectives as a student in Nepal and the U.S. “You learn different things when you work back home in a developing country. And when you come here to a developed country, it’s a very different perspective,” she reflects. “In Nepal, it’s more about, ‘These are the resources we have, so how can we make the most out of them?’” she says. At UMBC, she’s embraced broader opportunities. “I think here you can push the limit. I don’t even know what the limit is in the U.S. Here you can dream more and be more experimental,” she observes.

Regmi is inspired by her father, also an atmospheric physicist, but she has forged her own path. This spring, she returned to Nepal for only the second time since starting her Ph.D. to conduct research with him. “I finally got to work with him professionally, which was great,” she says. 

Grounded in the UMBC physics department’s community of support, Regmi’s confidence has only grown since her arrival in Maryland. “There’s always a place for my opinion, which is very nice. Because of that, and all of the experiences I’ve had, now I have the confidence to start my own project,” she explains. “And that’s why I think now I’m confident to go back home, lead something there, and be helpful in some small way.”

Learn more about atmospheric physics research at UMBC.

Robert Barry spent his undergraduate years thinking about the past, not the recent past, but the Minoan Bronze Age civilization of ancient Greece, which existed approximately 1750 to 1050 BC. This was not a passion Barry brought to UMBC. In fact, he had no interest in archeology and had never heard of the Minoan civilization until he chose to learn Greek with Michael Lane, associate professor of ancient studies, during his sophomore year. 

The language class set off an unexpected domino effect. Barry enjoyed learning from Lane, which piqued his interest in his archeology classes. He soon found himself enrolling in one archeology class after another, eventually preparing him to spend three summers working on an archeological site in mainland Greece. “What caught my eye was the art and architecture of Minoan civilization. I’ve always been interested in material culture with my degree in ancient studies and visual arts, but I became more interested in ancient civilizations,” says Barry. “I wanted to learn more about how people use art and architecture as expressions of individuality and power.”

Having the courage to pursue the unexpected led Barry to two prestigious opportunities that could help launch his career in ancient studies. This spring, Barry received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to study archeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and was admitted to the University of Oxford’s Master’s of Philosophy in Classical Archaeology. Barry, who had to choose between the two opportunities, ultimately decided on the program at Oxford, excited at being involved in research with leading experts. 

“One of the reasons I chose Oxford is the network of field archeologists whom I had heard about from peers at Oxford,” says Barry. “I am interested in working with an expert in Aegean palace economies. I decided to accept the offer so that I could work with Lisa Bendall, associate professor in Aegean archeology.”

Barry leaves for Oxford in October, but not without imparting some advice to his fellow Retrievers that inspired him to apply for both opportunities, “Apply to whatever programs you want to pursue. It is better to apply now and get rejected than regret that you never tried later on.”

Learn more about UMBC’s global education opportunities.

In the early morning of March 26, 2024, the massive cargo ship Dali lost power as it left the Port of Baltimore. The ship collided with one of the supports holding up the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River and the bridge collapsed, killing six construction workers and severely disrupting the flow of people and goods around Baltimore. In the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, officials began the process of planning for a new bridge, and now UMBC students are getting an up-close look at the massive project.

A year and half later, three Retrievers visited the bridge site, observing as workers demolished parts of the remaining structures in preparation for building a new bridge. Emily DiMarzio, a rising junior studying environmental science and geography, and Cristian Mena and William McConnell, both rising seniors studying mechanical engineering, were all selected to join The Key Bridge Rebuild Internship Program this summer. While their trip to the bridge this August was partly photo-op, it also represented their experiences throughout the summer, which included regular trips to the bridge and surrounding sites to learn about the ongoing work there.

The Key Bridge internship program launched this year as a partnership between the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC). This summer nine students from four Maryland universities, including Retrievers DiMarzio, Mena, and McConnell, got hands-on experience in project management, environmental analysis, construction oversight, and community outreach.

“It hurt when the bridge went down,” says McConnell, who grew up in Baltimore and now lives with his wife and three kids in Catonsville. “You could practically see it from our neighborhood, and now see that it is missing. So when the opportunity came along to apply for this internship, I jumped on it.” 

Bridge building boot camp

At the start of the internship, the students were divided into teams based on their interests. McConnell and Mena were on the structural and geotechnical team, which worked to review, analyze, and visualize data that was collected earlier in the year while boring into the layers of sediment where the structural supports for the new bridge will go. DiMarzio was on the environmental compliance team that performed reviews of permitting documents and requirements and observed how the requirements are met during construction.

A large part of the process was coming up to speed fast on the bridge-building process.

“I’ve learned so much—I feel like a bridge expert after this summer,” laughs Mena. 

McConnell noted that all the interns on the structural and geotechnical team came from mechanical engineering backgrounds. “It was nice for us to be exposed to and learn a lot about the civil engineering field,” he says. 

The interns went on regular trips outside the office to see the bridge-building process in action. They visited the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which was being redecked, and visited the Key Bridge site multiple times.

They also visited the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Virginia, where they saw how researchers were testing a 3D model of the new bridge to better understand how the force of waves will affect the sand around the bridge’s supports. 

“I thought that was super cool,” says Mena. “That was one of my favorite project sites.”

“The UMBC students are great to work with,” says Jason Stolicny, the deputy director of project development at MDTA who served as their supervisor this summer. “They show a genuine interest in learning and gaining exposure to new things.” 

Community outreach

As part of the internship, DiMarzio, Mena, and McConnell also worked together to develop a hands-on workshop for students at Cherry Hill Middle School in Baltimore as part of the UMBC Summer Math Program through the George and Betsy Sherman Center. They prepared a presentation on different bridge types and the workers who come together to build and maintain them. They also worked with students to design and build model bridges. The workshop was part of a summer enrichment program that UMBC runs in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools. The interns’ workshop fit into a curriculum about bridges that Malaysia McGinnis ’21, geography and environmental science, and M.A. ’24, secondary education and teaching, a teacher at Cherry Hill and Sherman Scholar, had designed for the summer program.

The interns agree it was rewarding to make connections with kids in the Baltimore community.

“There was one kid that stood out to me because during the whole presentation, he looked like he was asleep and so he kind of reminded me of myself,” says Mena. “So after the presentation I partnered up with him in the activity. He was super bright and answered all the questions I asked him. Hopefully, I inspired him to see his career choices and to continue learning and growing.”

MDTA plans to continue the Key Bridge internship program until the bridge has been rebuilt, which is currently anticipated to be in fall 2028. 

“It was an honor to be part of the first group of interns,” says McConnell. “I hope we helped set the stage for future interns to have really great experiences too.”

Mena contemplates what it will feel like to see the new bridge spanning the river: “That’s going to be quite a sight. I think it’ll be pretty meaningful because even though I contributed in a very small way, it’ll stand in our community as something bigger than ourselves and a symbol of what we can do when we put our minds together.”

Used to working in beautiful sunny weather, Giovanna Orfali, a visual arts senior from São Paulo, Brazil, spent this summer behind the camera as a digital content intern at the Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC). A seasoned filmmaker and photographer, this internship was an opportunity to expand her professional network and bring a fresh perspective to Maryland history by creating short-form social media content to share the center’s unique exhibits and events with audiences across the state.

Orfali is a recipient of the #YouAreWelcomeHere scholarship that offers tuition support for international students. She came to UMBC with experience as a television video editor and videographer and has used her skillset working on a wide range of projects. She produced and edited “Arthropod Biodiversity and Applications,” a full-length instructional video course for the Department of Biological Sciences, and works part-time as a photographer for UMBC athletics events. When Orfali is not at the MCHC, she produces digital media for UMBC’s event and conference services, her second summer internship site.

“When I began taking classes back home, no one was interested in editing audio, so I volunteered. I learned to say yes to all opportunities. At the TV station, I filmed interviews, exercise classes, and tourism commercials,” says Orfali. “I did the same when I came to UMBC. Being open to learning all aspects of audiovisual production has made me more confident and helped me make a lot of connections in and outside of the classroom.” Orfali’s short film “A Shared Story of Distance” was chosen to represent UMBC at the 2023 Maryland Film Festival Day: Student Shorts Showcase.

Hundreds of Retrievers like Orfali maximize their summer by putting their hard-earned skills to work in collaboration with campus and community partners. The 2025 arts, humanities, and social sciences summer interns are getting it done, one sunny day at a time.

Designing a career

No matter where a Retriever is in the world, they can search the online student job platform Handshake for thousands of summer internships, including on-campus opportunities. This was crucial for Humanities Scholar Kendal Howell, who stepped off the plane after studying business management abroad in France this past spring and into the office as an intern at UMBC’s Division of Student Affairs for their new academic partnerships and high-impact experiences (APHIE) unit. James DeVita, assistant vice president for APHIE, says his group needed materials and resources to help stakeholders understand the value of developing and engaging in high-impact experiences. So he turned to the experts in student experiences—the students themselves.

“We wanted to add to the number of on-campus internships. It was wonderful to have created a new professional experience for over 25 students, whose research will directly benefit their peers in a multitude of ways,” says DeVita. “By the end of the internship, the interns had collectively reviewed over 30 publications and drafted six resources in addition to completing the mapping research and related presentation.”

“The student-led research team studied high-impact practices for scholars programs, including UMBC’s, and synthesized academic research of these practices on student success in higher education,” says Howell, an Africana studies and sociology senior, with a minor in entrepreneurship. She focused on entrepreneurship, education abroad, work-based learning, and student leadership opportunities. “The information we gathered will help inform campus leaders in improving UMBC’s scholar programs. This was my first internship, and I loved it!”

Second-year gerontology doctoral student Claire McDonald also had the opportunity to conduct new research. Trained in quantitative research in psychology, McDonald gained qualitative methodology skills in her spring sociology class as part of her training to conduct research about aging in the LGBTQ+ community, a growing area of research. She is utilizing the mixed-methods LGBTQ+ Social Networks, Aging, and Policy Study, one of the few datasets on this topic, and hopes to add to her dissertation qualitative data from interviews with older LGBTQ+ adults in Baltimore for a mixed-methods project. Impressed with McDonald’s rigor, her professor recommended her to Rowena Winkler, the new assistant director for graduate student career development at the UMBC Career Center, who was seeking graduate students to conduct a 10-week qualitative research project. 

“I recruited over 100 students, conducted 11 individual interviews, and three focus groups to learn how and why graduate students use the Career Center and why they don’t,” says McDonald.  Winkler appreciated the partnership. They co-facilitated two of the focus groups together. “I watched Claire build rapport with the students. She was very open-ended and asked great prompts and follow-ups,” says Winkler. “I’m happy she had the opportunity to hone in on some of these skills that she learned in her class.”

From intern to staff

Professional growth and community building throughout the summer help students maintain ongoing growth at every stage of their learning process, leading to new jobs in other organizations, extending their internship to another semester, or a promotion from an intern to a staff member.

Like Howell, Handshake helped Orfali find both her summer internship at the MCHC as well as a spring internship in media production and audiovisual at the CATO Institute, a think tank in Washington, D.C. She impressed the MCHC team so much that they have extended her internship through the fall. “I learned a lot about working at a nonprofit that values the importance of history and culture, as well as collaborating with the external affairs team to create content for marketing purposes,” shared Orfali on LinkedIn. “This experience made me very interested in producing informative and educational videos and documentaries.”

As students advance in their academic careers, they can access paid, hands-on learning opportunities by serving as graduate assistants. Over the last eight years, Caleb Ruck, a language, literacy, and culture doctoral student and two-time alum, has climbed UMBC’s student worker ladder, including as a graphic designer and social media manager for UMBC’s Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion, and Belonging. He served as a special projects intern for the Center for Democracy and Civic Life and moved to the front of the classroom as a graduate teaching assistant for the modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication department. 

Ruck is now the first year-long graduate assistant for the Center for Social Justice Dialogue where he is helping develop and establish programming and procedures, such as co-facilitating a first-year seminar on the intricacies of dialogue around social identity, race, power, privilege, and oppression, and co-facilitating Building Bridges Across Difference: A Dialogue for Every Day for staff and faculty. 

This summer, Ruck focused on professional development by attending the National Intergroup Dialogue Institute, hosted by the University of Michigan’s program on intergroup relations, and preparing to welcome the first group of interns he helped interview.

“The skills I’ve acquired in this job make me feel more competent and prepared to co-facilitate dialogue, especially in student, staff, and faculty-facing contexts,” says Ruck ’22, modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication, and M.A. ’24, intercultural communication. “I want to be a faculty member, teach, and conduct research on social identity topics. Being able to navigate dialogue across differences is key.”

The UMBC Career Guide has templates and resources for students to help with internet and job search at every stage of their internship and job search. Listen to more tips on UMBC’s Careers Unleashed podcast.

In the heart of the BioHealth Capital Region—spanning Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.—more than 2,300 life science companies, 78 federal laboratories, and 35 million square feet of laboratory space create a vibrant hub for biotechnology and pharmaceutical innovation. For UMBC students interning at AstraZeneca, a global leader in healthcare, this summer offered a chance to bridge classroom learning with real-world challenges. Through their work, Mustafa Akpinar, Alek Read, and Ty Allen honed technical expertise, built teamwork and communication skills, and forged connections with peers and professionals on the Baltimore/D.C. biotech scene.

Building technical mastery

At AstraZeneca, UMBC interns are diving into hands-on projects that align with their academic training and career ambitions. Akpinar, a senior information systems major, works as a cyber threat intelligence and threat detection intern, analyzing potential cyber threats and sharpening detection systems using tools like Splunk. 

“This internship is a perfect fit for both my academic path and long-term career goals,” Akpinar says, noting how the role builds on his data communications and networks and database design courses. “Long term, I want to work in cloud security or threat detection,” he adds, “and this internship gives me practical exposure to both.” 

Alek Read, a senior environmental science major, contributes to sustainability efforts at AstraZeneca’s Frederick Manufacturing Center as an environmental health safety intern. His projects include measuring biochemical oxygen demand in wastewater and ensuring environmental compliance, directly tying into his passion for sustainable innovation. 

“This experience has helped me explore how large companies manage their environmental footprint,” Read explains. “It has been exciting to see how environmental practices are applied in real-world production settings.” He’s also learned about the environmental permitting process, he says.

Allen, a junior mechanical engineering major, is a site operations intern at AstraZeneca. He applies his engineering skills to edit technical drawings in AutoCAD. The role offers him a practical glimpse into the day-to-day life of an engineer, Allen says, allowing him to apply classroom knowledge in a professional setting. “It’s a great way to experience what being an engineer is like outside of school,” he shares.

Communicating for team success

Beyond technical skills, the interns are developing essential relational skills like collaboration and communication. Akpinar highlights the collaborative nature of his work, saying, “One major takeaway is how critical collaboration is in cyber defense—threat intelligence isn’t done in a vacuum.” His ability to share ideas with mentors and teammates has grown, and his suggestions are taken seriously and encouraged by his team, Akpinar says.

Read collaborates regularly with teammates across departments, giving him ample opportunities to practice clear communication. Plus, his teammates trust him to set task deadlines independently, boosting his project management skills. Similarly, Allen values the confidence his team has in him, explaining that as long as he checks in regularly, he can manage his work as he sees fit. Developing the ability to manage one’s workload independently and coordinate with colleagues across an organization are valuable skills that will serve these interns well in any future career.

A launchpad for future careers

The internship experience extends beyond individual tasks, offering opportunities to connect with fellow interns and industry professionals. Akpinar has enjoyed bonding with other UMBC interns across diverse roles at AstraZeneca. “It’s been great having that shared experience—we support each other and exchange insights from our different teams,” he says.

Read especially appreciated an AstraZeneca UMBC alumni and intern mixer, where he networked with former UMBC students now thriving at the company. These interactions not only broaden the interns’ perspectives on the kinds of careers available in the region, but also help them build lasting professional connections that could serve them in the future. Touring manufacturing facilities and participating in inspections was another highlight for Read. 

For Akpinar, Read, and Allen, interning at AstraZeneca is more than a summer job—it’s a stepping stone to their future careers. From protecting digital assets to advancing sustainability and engineering innovation, their work has the potential for real-world impact well beyond the BioHealth Capital Region. As they grow in their roles, these UMBC students are building skills, forging connections, and laying the foundation for success in the booming biotech industry.

When students think of working in technology, they may dream of moving to Silicon Valley and landing jobs at companies such as Google or Meta. But the traditional tech giants aren’t the only employers offering careers to computer science grads.

“When I first started applying for summer internships, I was like, ‘Let me apply to Google. Let me apply to Apple. Let me apply to Uber,’” says Wonder Akpabio, a rising junior in computer science. But she also took a look at companies outside the stereotypical tech world—and found an internship that felt just right in UMBC’s own backyard. This summer Akpabio worked as a global technology intern at the Baltimore-headquartered investment management firm T. Rowe Price.

Akpabio was one of four UMBC students who interned at the company this summer. She worked on testing and updating software the company uses to report the daily value of a type of investment instrument called an exchange-traded fund. Gabriel Farmer, another rising junior computer science major who interned at T. Rowe Price this summer, worked on a team supporting the internal email and text message communications software at the company.

“Once we leave, they’ll continue to use and build on what we did, so it’s definitely been fulfilling,” Farmer says. 

A company with Baltimore roots

T. Rowe Price was founded in 1937 in Baltimore and in the subsequent decades grew to include clients, staff, and locations throughout the U.S. and the world. In 2025, the company moved its global headquarters into newly built office space in Harbor Point in downtown Baltimore. They also operate a 72-acre suburban campus in Owings Mill, Maryland.

“T. Rowe Price has strong connections with UMBC and Maryland,” says Farmer. He appreciated the large network of Retriever alumni working there and the outreach the company did with the school, for example sending recruiters to HackUMBC. 

In the spring, T. Rowe Price hosted an online program, called “Launching Your Legacy,” designed to introduce undergraduate students to career paths within T. Rowe Price, and the asset management industry in general. Farmer applied for and attended the two evening sessions. “I was able to meet people who worked there, and it gave me a better idea of the company. Since I participated in the program, they offered a lot of help throughout the summer internship application process.”

Akpabio also made a personal connection to the company when she met a recruiter at the UMBC Career Fair who guided her through the interview process.  

Once arriving for their summer jobs, Akpabio and Farmer were each assigned two mentors within the company and given many opportunities to network with other interns and with more senior colleagues. 

“Anytime you ask a question, people are ready to help,” Farmer says. “It’s been a very good experience, and T. Rowe Price is definitely a place I could see myself continuing to work at.”

On left, Wonder Akpabio and Bintu Jalloh at the T. Rowe Price intern orientation. On right, a group of interns attends an Orioles baseball game together. (l-r): Bintu Jalloh, Roselyn Ojo, Sarah Floyd, Wonder Akpabio, Aracely Saenz, and Kate Martinez Palmero. (Photos courtesy of Akpabio)

Learning on the job

Both Farmer and Akpabio say they learned valuable lessons during the internship. 

“The main thing I took away was the value of allowing yourself to make mistakes,” says Akpabio. “At the beginning, I was afraid I might break something, so I quickly asked for guidance. Now, I try to rule out possible problems myself first. I find I retain information better when I let myself struggle a bit longer.”

Farmer says his most important take-away from the internship is the importance of networking. “Many people I met had experienced a point in their career where they felt lost. And it was the people they made the effort to build a connection with who helped them out of it.”

Farmer and Akpabio are still exploring career possibilities. Akpabio says she could see herself eventually transitioning to the business or trading side of a company like T. Rowe Price. 

“There is a lot of uncertainty in the tech world right now,” Farmer says. “Looking beyond the big tech firms and trying the T. Rowe Price internship was a great experience.”

In 2024, information systems Ph.D. student Ommo Clark penned an opinion piece for BusinessDay Nigeria exploring why many Nigerians diagnose and treat their medical conditions themselves, often turning to unreliable online information.

While the essay was inspired by firsthand experiences in her native country, the impulse to consult “Dr. Google” is a worrying global trend, Clark says, and one that has motivated her Ph.D. work. It’s unlikely that people will stop going online with health questions, so Clark is researching ways that AI could help patients, healthcare providers, public health officials, and content platforms better understand and evaluate the sea of medically related content on the internet.

A dual approach to misinformation

Ommo’s efforts were recently recognized when one of her research papers, co-authored with information systems professor Karuna Joshi, won the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Digital Health 2025, held in July in Helsinki, Finland. The paper, titled “Real-Time Detection of Online Health Misinformation using an Integrated Knowledgegraph-LLM Approach,” describes the results of combining two types of AI approaches (a concept sometimes called third-wave AI) to tackle the problem of identifying online health misinformation.

Clark and Joshi combined a large language model (LLM), which excels at understanding nuanced language, with knowledge graphs, which provide structured factual verification—in this case of medical knowledge. They found the combined approach significantly outperformed either approach by itself. 

“The most significant takeaway is that effective health misinformation detection requires both linguistic understanding and structured medical knowledge. Neither alone is sufficient for the complexity of health discourse online,” Clark says. 

Equally important, the researchers built robust privacy protections into the system, a critical piece that is missing from many current misinformation detection systems, Clark says.

Informing, not dictating

Going forward, the team is working to further improve their system by giving it the ability to understand the emotional undertones, cultural cues, stance, and persuasive structures of online health stories, in which people may describe personal experience with health treatments. This “narrative” information is important, Clark says, because it illuminates how some stories can be particularly compelling. The researchers are also working to build a system that can evaluate the clinical risk of misinformation, sorting potentially harmless claims from those that could risk your health. 

The upgrades will produce a tool that gives users critical information and meaningful risk assessments without presenting a “true/false” judgement, Clark says. “This nuanced approach respects user autonomy,” she says. “Rather than censoring content, we are giving people the tools to make informed decisions about the health information they encounter. In this era of declining institutional trust, transparency about methodology and risk assessment rather than authoritative declarations may be more effective in protecting public health while preserving democratic discourse.”

Clark has already received positive feedback from potential users of such tools. A nurse practitioner at Retriever Integrated Health whom she talked to about her work immediately asked if the system could be integrated into Google. Healthcare practitioners consult evidence-based medical sources before diagnosing or prescribing, the nurse said, “but patients go to Google!”