Weiser Professional Development Fellows

Hrachya Astsatryan

Weiser Professional Development Fellow, Fall 2025

Hrachya Astsatryan (PhD Computer Science, MS Applied Mathematics) is the Director of the Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, where he also leads the Center for Scientific Computing. His work lies at the intersection of high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and scientific computing. He has authored over 100 publications in leading international journals, conferences, and workshops. In 2023, he was awarded the Commemorative Medal of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia, and in 2005, from the President of the Republic of Armenia for his outstanding work in Technical Sciences and Information Technologies. Professor Astsatryan is visiting U-M in October 2025 to work on his research project “Mathematical Tools and Machine Learning Methods for Scalable Health Data Analysis” with Kayvan Najarian, professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics; emergency medicine; and electrical engineering and computer science.

Driart Elshani

Weiser Professional Development Fellow, Fall 2025 and Winter 2026

Driart Elshani is professor of information and communication technologies at the American University in Kosovo. He has contributed to multiple projects focused on leveraging information technology for development across both government and industry sectors. Professor Elshani's areas of expertise include artificial intelligence (AI), e-governance, and cybersecurity. He was educated at the University of Brussels, where he earned his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and PhD in information sciences and technologies. Professor Elshani is visiting U-M in September 2025 to complete research on a project entitled “Impact of AI on conflict transformation and peacebuilding” in collaboration with Thomas Finholt, professor of information.  

Diana Afyan

Weiser Professional Development Fellow, Winter 2026

Diana Afyan is Head of the Sample Surveys and Data Analysis Division at the Central Bank of Armenia and a lecturer in Statistics, Econometrics, and Research Methods at the Armenian State University of Economics and Yerevan State University. She holds a PhD in Mathematical Methods in Economics from the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia.

Her work focuses on economic measurement, inflation expectations, survey methodology, and the development of composite economic indicators such as the Business Climate Index and Consumer Confidence Index. She has collaborated with institutions including the World Bank and the Central Bank of Tajikistan and has participated in expert programs at the Bank of England, the IMF, the ECB, and American University of Armenia.

Dr. Afyan is visiting U-M in February 2026 to collaborate with Joanne W. Hsu, Director of the Surveys of Consumers and research associate professor at the Institute for Social Research. Her research will explore the behavioral dimensions of inflation expectations and their implications for monetary policy communication and public trust, using a unique dataset on Armenian households and businesses.

Marija Grujić    

Weiser Professional Development Fellow, Winter 2026

Marija Grujić is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Literature and Arts in Belgrade and a Lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of Novi Sad, Serbia. She earned her PhD degree from the Central European University (Budapest/Vienna) in 2010, where she specialized in the intersection of gender, popular culture, and community studies. She held a research postdoctoral Erasmus Mundus fellowship at the Free University Berlin (Freie Universität Berlin, 2013/2014), the Visegrad Scholarship at the Open Society Archives, Budapest (2020), and Doctoral Research Support Grant at University of Pittsburgh (2007). Her teaching has focused on literature, popular culture and film studies, gender representations, media, and feminist and gender theory. She is the author of four books: Razumeti Boru Stankovića: Proza intimnih realnosti (Understanding Bora Stanković: Intimate Realities Fiction, 2022), Rod i kultura fragmentarnosti (Gender and the Culture of Fragment, 2015), Reading the Entertainment and Community Spirit (2012), and Bakhtin and Feminist Literary Analysis (2007). Dr. Grujić will visit U-M to work with Tatjana Aleksic, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and of Comparative Literature.