Of the 11 Ohio State scientists elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) this year, 10 are from the College of Arts and Sciences.  

Election as a AAAS Fellow, one of the most prestigious honors a U.S. researcher can receive, is bestowed upon AAAS members by their academic peers based on their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

“Being named a Fellow of AAAS is a special honor that recognizes leading scientists and innovators,” said Gretchen Ritter, executive dean and vice provost of the College of Arts and Sciences. “The election of these new AAAS Fellows is a mark of distinction for Ohio State and the College of Arts and Sciences.”

The 10 new AAAS Fellows from the College of Arts and Sciences are:

• Janet Box-Steffensmeier, Vernal G. Riffe Professor in Government and Politics, Department of Political Science | For distinguished contributions to political methodology, including duration analysis and time series, and service to the advancement of political methodology and study of American politics. 
   
• Elizabeth Cooksey, Professor, Department of Sociology, Director, CHRR | For distinguished contributions to the field of social demography, with specializations in life course transitions, adolescent sexual behavior and the development of youth and children. 
   
• Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, Professor, Department of Anthropology | For distinguished contributions to biological anthropology, particularly using dental hard tissues to advance understanding of growth and biological relationships in nonhuman primates and fossil hominins. 
   
• Yuri Kovchegov, Professor, Department of Physics | For foundational contributions to the theoretical understanding of parton saturation effects in quantum chromodynamics and their manifestation in high-energy collisions with strongly interacting particles. 
   
• Zhengyu Liu, Robert Max Thomas Professor of Climate Dynamics, Department of Geography | For distinguished contributions to our understanding of climate dynamics, particularly in pioneering data-model experiments to explore the physics of present and past climate variability. 
   
• Paul Martini, Professor, Department of Astronomy | For distinguished contributions to the development of astronomical instrumentation and the evolution of black holes and galaxies. 
   
• Jay Myung, Professor, Department of Psychology | For distinguished applied and basic research on computational cognition, Bayesian cognitive modeling, optimal experimental design, adaptive design optimization, model selection and evaluation, and neural networks. 
   
• John Olesik, Research Scientist, School of Earth Sciences | For distinguished contributions to the field of analytical chemistry, particularly in optical spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. 
   
• Nandini Trivedi, Professor, Department of Physics | For her contributions to the theoretical understanding of quantum matter, characterized by innovative use of quantum Monte Carlo techniques and close experimental collaborations. 
   
• Daniel Wozniak, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Vice Chair, Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity in the College of Medicine | For contributions to defining patho-adaptive processes and evolution of bacteria during infection in the context of biofilms and animal models of chronic infection.

Also elected this year is Shan-Lu Liu, professor of veterinary biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and co-director of Ohio State’s Infectious Diseases Institute. Liu is also affiliated with the Department of Microbiology.

Over 230 Ohio State faculty have been named AAAS Fellows, and more than half of those have come from the College of Arts and Sciences.

This year’s 489 AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Nov. 27. A virtual Fellows Forum — an induction ceremony for the new Fellows — will be held on Feb. 13, 2021.

AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science 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.