Doctoral student, Riley Richards, the recipient of a Graduate Student Excellence Fellows award, was honored at the 2018 Graduate Student Fellowship Celebration on Wednesday, September 26, 2018.

The Graduate Student Excellence Fund was established in 2015 by the Dean of the Graduate School, Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, as a philanthropic effort to provide advanced degree students the support they need to pursue their research endeavors, complete their studies, and share discoveries with others in their fields.

Riley studies sexual communication as it relates to affection and sexual consent in romantic relationships. He says he initially wanted to teach high school sexual education. “However,” he points out, “it is commonly taught with an emphasis only on biology and excludes what a healthy relationship is like.” Riley also does work in human-robot interaction.