Six UMD Faculty Named AAAS Fellows, 3rd Most Among Universities Worldwide

Six UMD Faculty Named AAAS Fellows, 3rd Most Among Universities Worldwide

COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Six faculty members from the University of Maryland have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), making UMD one of the top sources of new AAAS fellows among universities worldwide.

Election as an AAAS Fellow is a highly regarded honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year, AAAS awarded this honor to a total of 401 members from 196 universities and organizations because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

The institution with the most AAAS fellows this year was Vanderbilt University with 11 fellows, followed by Emory University, University of Michigan, Pennsylvania State University and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, with eight fellows each. The University of Maryland tied for third-most fellows with the University of California, Davis, The Ohio State University, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Cornell University, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, with six Fellows each.

UMD’s new AAAS fellows are:

• Gregory F. Ball, Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) and professor in the department of psychology, “for distinguished contributions to the field relating hormones, brain and behavior, with particular contributions to neuroplasticity and bird song”;
• John S. Baras, professor and Martin Marietta Chair in Systems Engineering in the A James Clark School of Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research, “for distinguished contributions to the fields of systems and control, communication networks, network security, and leadership in establishing outstanding crossdisciplinary research and education programs”;
• Ian H. Mather, professor emeritus, School of Agriculture and Natural Resources (AGNR), “for distinguished and original contributions in mammary gland biology, especially the characterization of milk proteins and elucidation of basic mechanisms of milk secretion”;
• Mary Ann Ottinger, professor, Department of Animal and Avian Sciences, AGNR, “for distinguished contributions to the field of neuroendocrinology, with particular emphasis on regulation and endocrine disruption of reproduction in avian systems.”
• Nan Bernstein Ratner, professor of hearing and speech sciences, BSOS,  “for distinguished contributions to the field of speech and language sciences, particularly for evidence-based approaches to communication disorders and atypical language development”;
• Lai-Xi Wang, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, College of Computer, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, “for distinguished contributions to the field of carbohydrate chemistry and glycobiology, particularly for development of new chemoenzymatic methods for glycosylation engineering of therapeutic proteins”.

"We are very proud to be one of the top contributing universities of science scholars worldwide," said University of Maryland Vice President & Chief Research Officer and AAAS Fellow Patrick O’Shea. "We congratulate this year’s new AAAS fellows, and commend them on their outstanding individual efforts to advance science."

The AAAS seeks to promote cooperation among scientists, defend scientific freedom, encourage scientific responsibility, and support scientific education and science outreach for the betterment of all humanity. This year's AAAS Fellows were formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Nov. 28, 2014. For more information, visit the AAAS website.

January 1, 2015