Violence, Conflict, and Security Lab (ViCS)

Eric Han is a senior undergraduate student studying Criminology and Political Science with a minor in French. During his time working with Dr Siroky, he helped review and edit a wide variety of papers, notably the articles studying civil war recurrence, dimensions of irredentism, and EU policy in Georgian democratization. He loved his time as a research fellow for the ViCS lab!

Nicholas Hirsch is an Aerospace Engineering undergraduate at the University of Florida, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering. Currently, he is the director of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control sub-team at Florida Rocket Lab, a member of the UF Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, and a member of both the ViCS and SMART labs under Dr. Siroky and Dr. Wang respectively. He is currently studying how machine learning can be used to predict ethnic separatism and conflict. In addition, his other research interests include the guidance and control of autonomous air vehicles as well as optimal trajectory planning for space missions.

Tate Jones graduated with a degree in Political Sciene with a minor in European Union Studies at the University of Florida. He served as a Junior Fellow in the Department of Political Science, working with Dr. Siroky on a project investigating popular support for domestic militia groups in Eastern Europe. Additionally, his research interests include ethnic conflict in Eastern Europe, private military contractor interaction in sub-Saharan Africa, and the political dynamics of the arms procurement industry.

Saed Murad is an undergraduate student in Political Science at the University of Florida with a minor in Arabic Language. His research focuses on asymmetric warfare, insurgencies, non-state armed actors, and regional security. He is particularly interested in studying how informal sociocultural institutions, such as human codes around honor, hospitality, and silence, shape the growth and spread of insurgencies in asymmetric conflicts. Additionally, his work explores historical state-building efforts, counterinsurgency dynamics, and the intersection of domestic sovereignty and international conflict across the Middle East and Central Asia.

Aditi Sarkar is a Magna Cum Laude University of Florida graduate with a background in Political Science, AI and Sport Management. Her experiences include leadership in the UF Student Government, cultural organizations, as well as assisting with R-based research through the Junior Fellows Program. She is interested in studying law, cybersecurity policy, and research in her future.

Mary Slowik is a senior Industrial & Systems Engineering student at the University of Florida. As a student researcher with the ViCS Lab and the Florida Institute for National Security, she has contributed to quantitative political science research using R, including Bayesian modeling and experimental analysis. Her research has strengthened her interests in data analysis, decision-making, and applying quantitative methods to real-world problems. Outside of research, Mary serves as an Operations Supervisor with UF Information Technology Learning Spaces and has gained professional experience through internships with Northrop Grumman in industrial engineering, production planning, and operations.

Qingyu Zhang graduated from the University of Florida majoring in Political Science, Economics, and Mathematics. He is currently a 2nd year graduate student in the Economics PhD. program at the University of Massachusetts. His research interests include political economy, economic geography, and quantitative political science. In his free time, he enjoys reading, particularly history and Japanese literature.

Yunizar Adiputera is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. He specializes in International Relations and Comparative Politics as his first and second fields, respectively. His research interests center around civil wars and ethnic politics. Currently, he is working on a project that examines the wartime behaviors of belligerents from a specific reputational standpoint. His work involves a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, with a particular emphasis on applying Bayesian reasoning. yadiputera@ufl.edu

Muharrem (Mu) Bagriyanik is a Ph.D. student in political science. His academic specialization encompasses political methodology as his primary field and comparative politics as his minor field. He is working on his dissertation, which focuses on Topological Data Analysis (TDA). His research seeks to expand the application of TDA within Political Science and further into various domains of social sciences. Mu has a keen interest in Machine, Learning, Deep Learning, Causal Inference, and Bayesian Statistics. As a Data Analyst Graduate Assistant in the Human Resources Department at the University of Florida, Mu has completed numerous projects utilizing Machine Learning and other advanced methodologies. mbagriyanik@ufl.edu

Suren Mohammed is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of Florida. Growing up in a conflict-ridden country and region characterized by various conflicts, from ethno-nationalist to sectarian, he has been interested in studying the causes and consequences of conflict and violence. His research interests center on the dynamics of ethnicity, secessionism, and nationalism, with a special focus on the empirical Kurdish conflict in Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. He is interested in studying how ethno-nationalist movements think when pursuing secession. Additionally, his research interests extend to the foreign policies of Middle Eastern states in shaping regional conflict dynamics and how conflict in the region has impacted state capacity. suren.mohammed@ufl.edu

Dilruba Tas (she/her/hers) is a ViCS predoctoral fellow and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Florida. Her research interests include gender and women’s studies, women’s political violence and participation in armed rebellion, and international security studies with a regional focus on the Middle East. dtas@ufl.edu