Five University of California, Irvine researchers – working in disciplines as diverse as computer science, astronomy and cosmology, and science policy and ethics – have been elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.

“It is an honor to congratulate the five UC Irvine researchers named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,” said Hal Stern, UC Irvine provost and executive vice chancellor. “These scholars are making an impact across a range of fields with their groundbreaking work, and we are proud to have them as part of the UC Irvine community.”

This year’s new fellows, with AAAS citations, are:

• Kevork Abazajian, professor of physics and astronomy – for seminal work in understanding the role of neutrinos in cosmology and new ways to detect sterile neutrino dark matter
• Aaron Barth, professor of physics and astronomy – for distinguished contributions to the field of observational astronomy, including measurement of masses of supermassive black holes and reverberation mapping of active galactic nuclei
• Melinda Gormley (pictured), research and policy coordinator at the campus’s Center for Population, Inequality and Policy, as well as lead instructor and coordinator at the NSF CAREER Institute at UC Irvine – for outstanding contributions to the integration into science policy of pressing issues of scientific integrity, professional ethics and the public communication of science in its historical context
• Nalini Venkatasubramanian, professor of computer science – for distinguished contributions to the field of distributed computing, particularly developing the foundations of adaptive middleware for distributed systems and its realization through Internet of Things-enabled systems for smart, resilient communities
• Thomas Zimmermann, Chancellor’s Professor of informatics and Donald Bren Professor of Information & Computer Sciences – for distinguished contributions to the field of software engineering, particularly in mining software repositories, defect prediction, and developer productivity and experience through innovative empirical research

This year, a total of 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators from 24 AAAS disciplinary sections are being honored for their contributions to advancing science and its applications. The fellows will receive a certificate and a gold-and-blue rosette pin, symbolizing science and engineering, respectively, to commemorate their election. They will be celebrated in Washington, D.C., on June 7, and will also be featured in the AAAS News & Notes column of this month’s issue of the journal Science.

With this latest cohort, UC Irvine has 154 AAAS fellows.

-Brian Bell, UC Irvine