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Emory faculty named 2023 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
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Brian Katzowitz
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Emory faculty members named 2023 Fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science include (top row, left to right) Barbara Rothbaum, Jacobus de Roode, Tim Lian, Andrew Miller, Amita Manatunga (bottom row, left to right) Susan Margulies, Jin Peng, Kathryn Yount, Joanna Goldberg and Eric Weeks.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named 10 Emory faculty members as 2023 Fellows, the largest class of Emory faculty to ever receive the prestigious lifetime honor. These scientific leaders were selected for embodying scientific excellence while fostering trust in science, according to Sudip Parikh, PhD, AAAS chief executive officer.

Representing the fields of biology, engineering, neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, statistics and physics, the following Emory faculty have been elected as 2023 AAAS Fellows:

Joanna B. Goldberg, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.  She has been cited for "distinguished contributions to pathogenic microbiology, particularly for strategies used by bacteria to cause infections in patients with cystic fibrosis" and has published over 175 original research articles in the field.  In addition, Goldberg is strongly committed to training the next generation of scientists and strives to promote them to succeed in their chosen career paths.

Read more about Goldberg on the School of Medicine website.

Peng Jin, PhD, is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor and chair of human genetics in the School of Medicine, a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute and director of Emory’s Stephen T. Warren National Fragile X Research Center. His research focuses on defining the mechanisms of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, ranging from fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited form of intellectual disability, to Alzheimer’s disease. Jin is cited for “distinguished contributions to the field of neurogenetics and neuroepigenetics.”

Read more about Jin on the Winship Cancer Institute website.

Tianquan "Tim" Lian is the William Henry Emerson Professor of Chemistry in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. In search of efficient and low-cost solar energy conversion technologies, Lian heads a research group focused on advancing understanding of interfacial charge and energy transfer in photovoltaic and photocatalytic materials. Lian, who serves as the editor-in-chief of The Journal of Chemical Physics, is a recipient of several prestigious awards and fellowships. Lian is also a member of the both the American Chemical Society and American Physical Society.

Read more about Lian on the Lian Research Group website.

Amita Manatunga, PhD, is the Donna Jean Brogan Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Rollins School of Public Health. She has dedicated her career to making impactful contributions to the field of biostatistics, primarily to advance statistical methodology developments for addressing pressing public health challenges, but also to promote biomedical scientific investigations. Her methodological research interests include statistical methods for analysis of multivariate survival outcomes, studies of agreement and reproducibility, analysis of functional data, and model developments for prediction.

Read more about Manatunga on the School of Public Health website. 

Susan Margulies, PhD, is a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics. She also leads the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Engineering. Her research spans the micro-to-macro scales in two distinct subfields: traumatic brain injury and ventilator-induced lung injury. Using an integrated biomechanics approach consisting of relevant animal models, cell and tissue experiments, and complementary computational models and human studies, her lab generates new knowledge about the structural and functional responses of the brain and lung to their mechanical environment.

Read more about Margulies on the School of Medicine website.

Andrew H. Miller, MD, is the William P. Timmie Professor and vice chair for research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a professor in the Department of Hematology and Oncology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Miller is a foremost expert on the relationship between the brain and immune system, particularly how inflammation affects depression. Miller led the first clinical trial to explore the use of immunotherapy in treating depression. He has published over 300 scholarly articles and won numerous research and teaching awards.

Read more about Miller on the School of Medicine website.

Jacobus de Roode is a Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Biology in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. In his lab at Emory, de Roode and his team investigate the evolution and ecology of parasites and their hosts, as well as animal migration. Most of this work involves monarch butterflies and honeybees. De Roode directs the Infectious Diseases Across Scales Training Program (IDASTP) and co-directs Emory’s Molecules and Pathogens to Populations and Pandemics (MP3) Initiative. De Roode also serves on the Board of Directors of the Rosalynn Carter Butterfly Trail.

Read more about de Roode on the Department of Biology website.

Barbara Olasov Rothbaum, PhD, is director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program. She is a professor and associate vice chair of clinical research at Emory School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program and holds the Paul A. Janssen Chair in Neuropsychopharmcology. An expert in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Rothbaum pioneered virtual reality exposure therapy for combat veterans and has contributed extensively to PTSD treatment research. She has authored more than 400 scientific papers and published 11 books on the treatment of PTSD.

Read more about Rothbaum on the School of Medicine website.

Eric Weeks is the Samuel C. Dobbs Professor of Physics in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, director of the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence and associate vice provost for faculty affairs. He researches experimental soft condensed matter: the study of materials such as foam, sand, gels and paste. His work connects the microscopic structure of these materials to their macroscopic properties. Weeks has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles and is a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Read more about Weeks on the Emory physics website. 

Kathryn Yount, PhD, is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Global Health and professor of global health and sociology at the Rollins School of Public Health and the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Her research centers on the social determinants of women’s health, including mixed-methods evaluations of social norms and empowerment-based programs to reduce gender-based violence and health disparities in underserved populations. Her work has culminated in more than 300 publications in the social sciences and global health. 

Read more about Yount on the School of Public Health website.

The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) to commemorate their election and will be celebrated at a forum on Sept. 21, 2024, in Washington, DC.  



The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational MedicineScience Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science AdvancesScience Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, see www.aaas.org.


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