Three NYU Scientists Named AAAS Fellows

NYU Professors Martín Farach-Colton, Rebecca A. Betensky, and Zhong-Ping Jiang

Three New York University professors have joined the ranks of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a distinguished lifetime honor within the scientific community.

NYU's Rebecca Betensky, Martín Farach-Colton, and Zhong-Ping Jiang are among the 502 scientists, engineers, and innovators who are recognized as 2023 AAAS Fellows by the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. A tradition dating back to 1874, this year marks the 150th anniversary of the AAAS Fellows.

Rebecca A. Betensky, professor and chair of the Department of Biostatistics at the NYU School of Global Public Health, is recognized by AAAS for her distinguished contributions to statistical methodology and biomedical research, including for survival analysis, clinical trials, and biomarker discovery. She has collaborated extensively on studies of neurological disorders, with a particular focus on Alzheimer's disease. Betensky was also elected for her outstanding leadership of a biostatistics department and her commitment to and accomplishments in the promotion of diversity in statistics, notably the development of an NIH-funded summer pathways program in quantitative aging research for undergraduates, including those from groups underrepresented in quantitative health-related sciences.

Martín Farach-Colton, Leonard J. Shustek Professor of Computer Science and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is recognized for distinguished contributions to the theory of data structures and their use in computer systems. His areas of expertise include big data algorithmics, storage systems, data structures, and streaming algorithms, and his most recent works involve addressing the shortcomings of translation lookaside buffers, a type of memory cache; giving the fastest key-value store for persistent memory systems, a new type of RAM; and devising a hash table that simultaneously offers the strongest known guarantees on a large number of core properties. He recently received widespread attention for a journal article that represented a new standard for hash table efficiency and helped solve a long-standing open problem in computer science.

Zhong-Ping Jiang, professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is recognized for seminal contributions to nonlinear small-gain theory and to constructive nonlinear control design for mechanical, information, and biological systems. He has a vast body of work which focuses on interdisciplinary problems at the interface of control and learning. Some of his recent research explores how the nervous system works under uncertain conditions and the development of robust adaptive dynamic programming as a theory of human sensorimotor learning and control; safe and robust automated lane-changing technology; the construction of an AI-based closed-loop coordinated signal control system for multiple intersections, along with routing strategies for the smooth distribution of traffic flows; and resilient next-generation wireless networks.

"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," said Sudip Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals.

The 2023 AAAS Fellows will be honored in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 2024. The Fellows will also be featured in the journal Science this month.

Founded in 1831, NYU is one of the world's foremost research universities (with more than $1 billion per year in research expenditures, it is ranked seventh among private research universities) and is a member of the selective Association of American Universities. NYU has degree-granting university campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai and has 13 other global academic sites, including London, Paris, Florence, Tel Aviv, Buenos Aires, and Accra, and US sites in Washington, DC, Los Angeles, CA, and Tulsa, OK. Through its numerous schools and colleges, NYU is a leader in conducting research and providing education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, business, dentistry, engineering, education, nursing, the cinematic and performing arts, music and studio arts, public service, social work, public health, and professional studies, among other areas.

Rachel Harrison

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