The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded the distinction of Fellow to 376 members, including MIT President Susan Hockfield and six MIT faculty members.
Fellows are recognized for their efforts advancing science or fostering applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. New Fellows will be presented with the society's gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Feb. 18, at the group's annual meeting in St. Louis. The following people from MIT are new AAAS Fellows:
- Hockfield was honored for "pioneering work identifying the extracellular matrix as a critical element in activity-dependent brain maturation and in brain tumor cell motility and for university leadership."
- Tania A. Baker, professor in the Department of Biology, was named a Fellow for "pioneering work in protein-catalyzed protein remodeling."
- Keith A. Nelson, professor in the Department of Chemistry, was cited for "innovative ultrafast studies of and optical control over structural change in complex materials and for creative applications in thin film photoacoustic technology."
- Rafael L. Bras, Edward Abdun-Nur Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was honored for "contributions to hydrologic science, most recently in the understanding of landscape evolution and land-atmosphere interaction, and for leadership in academia and the profession."
- Gregory N. Stephanopoulos, Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering, was cited for "research, technology development and educational contributions to metabolic engineering, cell culture engineering and bioinformatics, and for championing metabolic engineering in biology and biotechnology."
- Miklos Porkolab, director of the Plasma Science and Fusion Center, was honored for "pioneering experimental and theoretical research in nonlinear dynamics of plasmas and for leadership in advancing controlled fusion."
- Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor of Neuroscience, was cited for "work in high-level cognition, elucidating the neural bases of executive brain functions."
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on November 9, 2005 (download PDF).
