Dr. Marisa Pedulla Named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

11/26/2019

This year 443 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February 15, 2020 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2020 AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 29 November 2019.

As part of the Education Section, Dr. Marisa L. Pedulla was elected as an AAAS Fellow for conceiving, developing, and implementing a replicable state-scale model for engaging pre-college students and teachers in science discovery and research using ubiquitous bacteriophages.

“I am honored by this recognition of my efforts to provide genuine scientific discovery opportunities for students across Montana. This work would not have been possible without a lifetime of support from my parents, exceptional mentoring by Dr. Graham Hatfull during my Ph.D. and postdoctoral training, and early career support from Montana INBRE. Many thanks to Montana Tech’s past and present supportive leadership, including former department head Dr. Rick Douglass, former Chancellor Gilmore, Deans Hartline and Gammon, and Chancellor Cook. Dozens of extraordinary K-12 teachers and Rayelynn Brandl and Chris Doyle at Montana Tech’s Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP) made the statewide expansion of phage discovery possible, funded by two Science Education Partnership Awards (SEPA) granted by the National Institutes of Health.”

“Dr. Pedulla is very deserving of this award,” added Montana Tech Chancellor Dr. Les Cook. “Our campus is lucky to have a faculty member as dedicated as Marisa. She continues to bring distinction to Montana Tech and has made major impacts in her field of study as well as significant contributions to many students along the way.”

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the association’s 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee’s institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer. Fellows must have been continuous members of AAAS for four years by the end of the calendar year in which they are elected. The AAAS Fellow honor comes with an expectation that recipients maintain the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

Each steering group reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.

AAAS encourages its sections and Council to consider diversity among those nominated and selected as Fellows, in keeping with the association’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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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 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. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world. 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.