Six Vanderbilt University faculty members, four of whom have primary appointments in the School of Medicine, have been elected honorary fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for their contributions to advancing scientific knowledge and its applications.
They are among 500 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 disciplines who have been elected to the 2025 class of fellows.
The fellows and their recognitions, as cited by the AAAS, are:
Christos Constantinidis, PhD, Stevenson Professor and professor of Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience, Neurological Surgery, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Psychology, and Radiology & Radiological Sciences, “for significant contributions to the neural basis of working memory and cognitive functions.”
Ege Kavalali, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and William Stokes Professor of Experimental Therapeutics, “for distinguished contributions to the field of neuroscience, especially key contributions to understanding the mechanisms of synaptic communication in health and disease.”
Ela Knapik, MD, professor of Medicine and of Cell & Developmental Biology, “for fundamental contributions to zebrafish gene mapping and creative use of zebrafish research to substantially extend our understanding of biological mechanisms for human genetic diseases.”
Bennett Landman, PhD, Stevenson Professor and University Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and of Radiology & Radiological Sciences, “for distinguished contributions to the field of medical image processing, particularly for robust approaches for image segmentation and novel approaches to harmonize quantitative medical imaging.”
Bradley Malin, PhD, Accenture Professor and professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and vice chair for Research Affairs in the Department of Biomedical Informatics, “for distinguished contributions to the field of trustworthy computing, particularly for privacy-preserving data analytics, and publication.”
Michael Matheny, MD, MS, MPH, professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, and Medicine, “for distinguished contributions to the field of biomedical informatics, nephrology, and medical device safety through the development and application of machine learning and artificial intelligence methods and tools.”
This election brings to 137 the number of AAAS fellows who are current or emeritus Vanderbilt University faculty members or staff — a 71% increase (57 more members) since 2012.
One hundred one fellows have primary appointments in the School of Medicine. Sixty-four are based in clinical departments, and 37 are in the basic science departments: Biochemistry, Cell & Developmental Biology, Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, and Pharmacology.
The top three departments are Medicine, the largest clinical department, with 28 fellows, followed by Biochemistry, with 13, and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, with 10.
The 2025 fellows have been invited to the annual AAAS Fellows Forum May 29 in Washington, D.C.
