Two members of the Colorado State University faculty – Allen Robinson and Melinda Smith – have been named 2023 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
The 2023 class of AAAS Fellows includes 502 scientists, engineers and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines. The lifetime designation is given to those whose efforts to advance science applications are deemed “scientifically or socially distinguished.”
In a tradition stretching back to 1874, AAAS Fellows are elected annually by the AAAS Council. The 2023 Fellows will be recognized during a ceremony in September.
Allen Robinson, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering
Allen Robinson is the dean of the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering and a professor with joint appointments in the Departments of Atmospheric Science and Mechanical Engineering. He became the dean of the college in 2023 after serving as the director of Carnegie Mellon University’s campus (CMU-Africa) in Kigali, Rwanda.
Robinson’s research examines technical and policy issues related to the impact of emissions from energy systems on air quality, climate and public health with an eye toward policy analysis and decision making. In addition to heading CMU-Africa, Robinson recently served as director of the Environmental Protection Agency-funded Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions, which involves researchers and students at seven universities and a national lab.
He is also a past president of the American Association for Aerosol Research.
Melinda Smith, College of Natural Sciences
Melinda Smith is a professor in the Department of Biology and the chair of the Faculty Council at CSU. Smith was elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America in 2017.
Smith is a plant community ecologist who focuses on the Great Plains grasslands of the U.S. Her research is aimed at understanding the consequences of human-caused global changes on grasslands – especially the impacts of climate change and climate extremes on plant species diversity and ecosystem function. She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed research papers and her research has garnered more than $15 million in funding. In addition to her campus leadership roles, Smith also serves as an editor-in-chief of the international ecological journal Oecologia.
She has worked with researchers around the world and is currently leading the first ever globally distributed experiment to better understand the potential losses of plant productivity and diversity in terrestrial ecosystems due to extreme drought.
Last year’s AAAS Fellows from CSU were Gillian Bowser, Chris Funk and Melinda Laituri.
