AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and the election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. 

Thomas, who also holds a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, was honored “for sustained commitment to combining science policy with innovative interdisciplinary research in industrial ecology.”

Giddens, a biomedical engineering professor in the Coulter Department, was honored “for significant contributions to our understanding of the role of hemodynamics in cardiovascular pathobiology and for leadership of engineering education nationally.”

In addition to Thomas and Giddens, three of the six new Fellows at Georgia Tech also hail from the College of Engineering; one is on the faculty in the College of Sciences’ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. They include the following:

Gilda A. Barabino, associate chair for graduate studies and professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, who was honored “for distinguished contributions to tissue engineering research and education, as well as for enhancing the participation of underrepresented groups in scientific fields.”

Stephen P. DeWeerth, professor of biomedical engineering at the Coulter Department, who earned the distinction “for contributions in the field of neuroengineering, particularly for the real-time modeling of sensorimotor systems and for the development of neural interfacing technology.”

Joseph W. Perry, professor of physical, polymer and materials chemistry and optical science, who was honored “for distinguished contribution to the understanding, development and application of organic materials for third-order nonlinear optics.”

Zhuomin Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering, who was awarded the Fellow distinction “for advancing thermal radiation research and its applications in temperature measurement, promoting education in nano- and micro-scale heat transfer and serving professional societies.”

New Fellows will be honored at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the upcoming 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting to be held on February 19^, 2011, in Washington, D.C.