On Saturday, May 23rd, JICUF held the 2026 Othmer Research Fellowship Spring Workshop on the ICU campus, bringing together 18 new Othmer Fellows from across ICU’s academic programs with staff, a keynote speaker, and panelists. The workshop served as a first step toward the fellowship program’s goal of building an interdisciplinary network that fellows can lean on beyond their time at ICU. (Click here to see the participant list.)

The morning began with a keynote address from Dr. John C. Maher, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at ICU, who described research as a careful, structured process full of uncertainties, especially when research doesn’t go as planned. He advised fellows to keep a daily research log to jot down questions, setbacks, and small victories along their research journey. When faced with a fork in the road, he encouraged fellows to resist chasing the perfect path in favor of one that is good enough. He closed by urging fellows to rely on the most valuable resources—their time, their mentors, and their peers.

A panel discussion moderated by JICUF President and CEO Paul Hastings followed, featuring three JICUF-funded researchers sharing their research journeys and the unexpected, unique challenges they faced along the way. Silvia Luz Gonzalez Marquez, who researched religious intolerance in indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico, described the difficulty of affirming her role as an objective researcher when interviewees insisted that she convey the urgency of their needs directly to government officials she had also interviewed. Michiru Sasaoka, who researched the relationship between mosquito size and habitat, retold how she changed her original collection plan to a simple mosquito net when the original plan involving complex, 3D-printed devices fell short of expectations. Naho Yoshikawa, whose research compared the socio-emotional learning outcomes of students in private and public schools in Kenya, shared the difficulty of researcher restraint when witnessing teachers inflicting corporal punishment on students during her classroom observations—a challenge that echoed Prof. Marquez’s own.

After a brief Q&A, the fellows took part in a unique peer feedback exercise. In small groups, each project received 30 minutes of structured discussion. At the start of the discussion, one group member introduced and posed questions on a research project authored by another group member, who simply listened to how their fellow group member interpreted the research. The author joined the conversation in the last 10 minutes, responding to the questions raised and the suggested improvements. (See the discussion structure illustrated in the figure below.)

JICUF designed the discussion format to make each fellow’s research clearer and more accessible by exposing it to an outside perspective. Peer presenters were intentionally from a different academic background so that authors could see how someone outside their discipline interpreted their ideas. This cross-disciplinary approach achieved two main benefits: authors gained new insights that reshape their research methodology while peer group members received a valuable glimpse into how other fields approach research.

Photos of the Peer Feedback Sessions (Photos by Fernando Rojas)

Fellows praised the format. One participant noted that staying silent during the discussion “allowed me to visualize exactly which points were difficult to convey and where questions naturally arose.” The interdisciplinary mixing was a particular highlight for fellows used to more insular academic circles. As one biology student put it, “[T]here are not many opportunities like this. It brought very creative ideas that will help me refine my research ideas.”

Photos from at the Evening Reception after the 2026 ORF Spring Workshop (Photos by Kyoka Horiuchi)

The day closed with a reception in the Faculty Lounge of the Dialogue House. Over drinks and sushi, fellows and their advisors reflected on the day’s activities and continued discussions from the peer feedback sessions.

Fellows will reconvene in November to reflect on their summer research experiences, prepare research posters, and present their research in early December.

Learn more about the 2026 Othmer Fellows HERE or reach out to Senior Program Manager Fernando Rojas (frojas@jicuf.org) to learn more about the fellowship.