Five faculty of the Georgia Institute of Technology have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow -- Richard A. DeMillo, the John P. Imlay Dean and Distinguished Professor of Computing; Rigoberto Hernandez, associate professor, School of Chemistry & Biochemistry; Peter J. Hesketh, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering; John F. McDonald, professor and Chair, School of Biology; and Gary B. Schuster, Dean of the College of Sciences and Professor of Chemistry. Election as a Fellow of AAAS is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers.

Awarded to 308 members this year, these individuals have been elevated to this rank because of their efforts to advance science or its applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February 19, at the Fellows Forum during the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.

This year's AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal, Science on October 29, 2004.

As part of the section on Biological Sciences, John F. McDonald, professor and Chair of the School of Biology, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for pioneering work on the evolution of transposable genetic elements and their contributions to gene and genome structure and function.
As part of the section on Chemistry, Rigoberto Hernandez, associate professor in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for innovative computational methods and theoretical models for understanding structural and dynamic chemical behavior and for commitment to diversity and inclusiveness in science.

As part of the section on Chemistry, Gary B. Schuster, Dean of the College of Sciences and Professor of Chemistry, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for pioneering research in organic photochemistry and for leadership of the academic enterprise.

As part of the section on Engineering, Peter J. Hesketh, professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for the development of MEMS microfluidic and microvalve devices and biosensors and for the application of stereolithography in fabricating prototype chemical sensors.

As part of the section on Information, Computing and Communication, Richard A. DeMillo, the John P. Imlay Dean and Distinguished Professor of Computing, was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the fields of computer security, software engineering, and mathematics, with particular emphasis on information security.

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 Chief Executive Officer.

Each Steering Group then 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.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more.