Seven Emory faculty named as fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

March 27, 2025

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Georgia Parmelee

Seven members of the Emory faculty have been named by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as 2024 Fellows. The AAAS selects fellows for their outstanding efforts in the advancement of science based on research, teaching, administration and technology, as well as communicating and interpreting science to the public. Emory’s new fellows join a distinguished list of previous fellows including Thomas Edison, W. E. B. DuBois, retired astronaut Ellen Ochoa and former Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

“Being elected an AAAS Fellow is one of the most distinguished honors that can be earned within the scientific community,” says Emory President Gregory L. Fenves. “To see seven of Emory’s exceptional faculty members receive this recognition affirms the extraordinary caliber of their talent, leadership and impact on society.”

The following Emory faculty were selected as 2024 AAAS Fellows:

Wilbur Lam, for “novel advances in the field of hematologic biophysics and the development of point-of-care diagnostics, which have a global impact.” Lam is professor of biomedical engineering in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech, as well as professor of pediatrics in the Emory School of Medicine and co-director of the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center. He serves as associate dean of innovation for the School of Medicine, the inaugural vice provost for entrepreneurship, and researcher in the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Program at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. His work brings together biologists, engineers and physicians to develop new technologies that patients and clinicians can use to research, diagnose and treat blood- and cancer-related diseases.

David H. Lawson, for “advances in the targeted and immune-based treatment of patients with metastatic melanoma and for being an exemplar in establishing collaborations between lab-based and clinical researchers to develop new cancer treatments.” Lawson, professor of hematology and medical oncology in the School of Medicine, has dedicated his career to researching and treating melanoma and other skin cancers. A researcher in the Discovery and Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute, his research focuses on the immune system’s role in cancer.

Tené T. Lewis, for “pioneering research establishing empirical associations between exposure to race- and gender-related stressors and objective, clinically relevant markers of disease.” Lewis, an associate professor of epidemiology in the Rollins School of Public Health, studies how psychological and social factors, such as stress levels and resilience, contribute to higher rates of cardiovascular disease in Black women compared to other racial and ethnic groups.

Anant Madabhushi, for “seminal contributions in the innovation and translation of machine vision, digital pathology, machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies in medical imaging and their application to problems in precision medicine.” Madabhushi, a professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, also serves as a researcher in the Cancer Immunology Program at Winship Cancer Institute and executive director of the Emory Empathetic AI for Health Institute. The institute brings together physicians, engineers and biomedical researchers to study ways that artificial intelligence can be used to improve a range of health outcomes through better diagnostics and treatment, particularly for cancers, cardiovascular, renal, ophthalmologic and respiratory diseases.

Ilya Nemenman, for “distinguished contributions to theoretical biophysics, especially for elucidating the flow of information in biological systems.” Nemenman, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Physics in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, works to understand what he calls “biological information processing,” that is, how biological systems such as neurons, cells, cellular networks, whole brains, organisms and entire populations learn from their surrounding environment and respond to it. His research uses information theory and machine learning to study learning, adaptation, memory and evolution, working with primate brains and the microscopic roundworm c. elegans. Nemenman is also a member researcher in the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute.

Edmund K. Waller, for “for advancing the field of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and identifying novel ways to enhance the anti-cancer immune response.” Waller, professor in the departments of medicine, pathology, hematology and medical oncology and the Rein Saral, MD, Professor in Cancer Medicine at Winship Cancer Institute, is a practicing physician whose research focuses on enhancing immune reconstitution after stem cell transplant and anti-tumor immunology. His work aims to improve the effectiveness and outcome of blood stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia and lymphoma.

Li Xiong, for “distinguished contributions to the field of privacy-preserving and secure data sharing and computation.” Xiong is Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Computer Science and professor of biomedical informatics in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences. Her cybersecurity research at the intersection of data management, collaborative machine learning and privacy and security focuses on privacy enhancing and trustworthy machine learning and data sharing to enhance AI systems in health care, public health and spatial intelligence.

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 in Washington, D.C., on June 7.

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