The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals, has named its 2023 class of fellows.

Six Virginia Tech researchers are named among the latest class of 502 scientists, engineers, and innovators. The newly elected AAAS Fellows represent the fields of biological sciences, chemistry, medical sciences, and engineering followed by neuroscience and physics.

“I congratulate our researchers who are being honored as lifetime fellows for their groundbreaking contributions to the scientific community,” said Dan Sui, senior vice president for research and innovation. “These highly regarded researchers are developing and improving technologies and innovations that inform new pathways in wireless communications, machine learning algorithms, mineral physics, plant metabolism, and diversifying the field of computing.”

“As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the AAAS Fellows, AAAS is proud to recognize the newly elected individuals. This year’s class embodies scientific excellence, fosters trust in science throughout the communities they serve, and leads the next generation of scientists while advancing scientific achievements,” Sudip S. Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals, said in the association's news release.

The Virginia Tech class joins the ranks of notable scientists such as Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space; Steven Chu, Nobel laureate in physics who served as the 12th U.S. secretary of energy; W.E.B. Dubois, considered the founding father of American sociology; Ellen Ochoa, veteran astronaut and the Johnson Space Center’s first Hispanic and second female director in its history; and Grace Hopper, pioneer in computer software development and programming language, among many others.

Virginia Tech's 2023 class of AAAS Fellows

Eric Burger, research director, research professor of NextG security

An entrepreneur and technology leader, Burger is helping guide the research direction of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, an unprecedented statewide cybersecurity consortium of 40-plus Virginia universities and colleges. Burger is the former chief technology officer of the Federal Communications Commission and was named a 2023 fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He is also technical director of the NextG Alliance, an initiative dedicated to advancing North American wireless technology leadership.

Liwu Li, professor of biological sciences

Li and his group pioneered the concept for which he has been cited. He found that systemic low-grade inflammatory/damage signals can generate low-grade inflammatory leukocytes that contribute to sustained damages to vasculatures involved in the pathogenesis of chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis. His work led to fundamental principles and underlying mechanisms for the bifurcation dynamics of innate leukocytes in adopting either low-grade inflammatory, tolerance or exhaustion memory. Li, fellow of the American Heart Association and College of Science Faculty Fellow, is working to further develop effective therapeutic strategies to rejuvenate exhausted leukocytes and restore innate immune homeostasis for the treatment of acute and chronic diseases.

Naren Ramakrishnan, Thomas L. Phillips Professor of Engineering

Ramakrishnan's forecasting research has impacted numerous disciplines – epidemiology, social science, political science - in addition to making core technical contributions to computer science and data science. He led the design and deployment of systems focused on forecasting disease outbreaks, civil unrest, mass migrations, and elections across the globe. This work has contributed a methodology of forecasting involving previously untapped data sources, new machine learning algorithms for identifying event precursors, and novel information fusion approaches for generating alerts.

Nancy Ross, professor of mineralogy

  • Affiliations: Department of Geosciences, College of Science; materials science and engineering, College of Engineering
  • AAAS citation: For significant and sustained contributions to mineral physics, crystal chemistry, and high-pressure research related to Earth’s mantle mineralogy and structurally-related technological compounds.

Ross is known for her influential role in applying lattice dynamics and principles of atomic bonding and structure to derive governing principles of the stability and sustainability of materials and for her leadership in expanding the scope of the fields of geochemistry and mineralogy with neutron sources.

Barbara Ryder, J. Byron Maupin Emerita Professor

  • Affiliations: Department of Computer Science, College of Engineering 
  • AAAS citation: For seminal contributions to programming language and for distinguished leadership to community, particularly in broadening participation in computing. 

Serving from 2008-15, Ryder was the first female department head for computer science and in the College of Engineering. Upon her retirement, the department established the Barbara G. Ryder Fund for Excellence in Computer Science. Ryder's research interests were focused on static and dynamic program analyses for object-oriented systems, focus on usage in practical software tools for ensuring the quality and security of industrial-strength applications. She was named fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1998. Ryder has received numerous accolades including the ACM Presidential Award, the ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering Distinguished Educator Award, and the National Center for Women in Technology Harrold-Notkin Award for Graduate Mentoring and Research.

Brenda Winkel, professor of biological sciences

  • Affiliations: Former head of the Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science; principal scientist with the Fralin Life Sciences Institute
  • AAAS citation: For distinguished contributions to the field of plant metabolism, particularly for elucidating intracellular organization of metabolic pathways to study fundamental plant development and for applications to human health.

Winkel's research has focused primarily on understanding the intracellular organization of metabolism, centered on flavonoid biosynthesis in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Her group produced the first direct evidence for the existence of the long-proposed flavonoid multienzyme complex and made the surprising discovery that these enzymes can localize to the nucleus. More recently, her team uncovered evidence that the products of flavonoid metabolism influence the plant circadian clock. Winkel also sustained a 22-year collaboration with Karen Brewer's group in the Department of Chemistry until Brewer's passing in 2014, working to develop novel multimetallic anticancer agents.

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