2 Georgia Tech Faculty Members Named AAAS Fellows

Two Georgia Tech faculty members have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society.

Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, and Susan Margulies, professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Injury Biomechanics, are two of the 502 people named to the AAAS Fellows Class of 2023. The society has been awarding scientists, engineers, and innovators since 1874 for achievements and efforts on behalf of the advancement of science and its applications. AAAS Fellows are recognized for outstanding contributions to research, teaching, technology, and science communication.

The organization chose Levine, who is also a professor in the School of Public Policy, for his contributions to biomedical research policy - including advancing understanding of how policy debates influence contentious areas of research. His work draws on ethics, policy, and biomedical research.

He also studies the development and oversight of biomedical research and healthcare areas such as stem cell treatments, assisted reproductive technology, fetal tissue research, and CRISPR.

The author of Cloning: A Beginner's Guide, an accessible introduction to the science of cloning and the ethical and policy controversies it inspires, Levine was a member of the 2019-20 cohort of AAAS' Alan I. Leshner Leadership Institute Public Engagement Fellows.

Margulies leads the U.S. National Science Foundation's Directorate for Engineering, which provides academic institutions federal funding to support technologies that affect healthcare, agriculture, clean energy, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and communications systems. Her research spans the micro-to-macro scales in two distinct subfields: traumatic brain injury and ventilator-induced lung injury.

Using an integrated biomechanics approach consisting of relevant animal models, cell and tissue experiments, and complementary computational models and human studies, her lab generates new knowledge about the structural and functional responses of the brain and lungs to their mechanical environment. 

Margulies is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the National Academy of Medicine. 

Most recently, Margulies was one of six Georgia Tech researchers named to the National Academy of Fellows Class of 2023.