Crow, Newfeld elected AAAS Fellows

Two faculty members of Arizona State University, including ASU President Michael Crow, are among the 702 newly elected American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. A prestigious international scientific society, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society.

Joining Crow as a newly elected AAAS Fellow from ASU is Stuart Newfeld. Both are featured in the Nov. 30 Science magazine, and they will be recognized Feb. 16 at a forum of the 2013 AAAS annual meeting in Boston.

This year’s election brings the total number of AAAS Fellows at Arizona State University to 67.

Becoming an AAAS Fellow is in recognition of efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. Within that general framework, each awardee is honored for contributions to a specific field.

Michael M. Crow is recognized by AAAS for “provocative contributions to public discourse on the appropriate role of government in setting priorities in funding science and willingness to challenge dogma.” Crow has been a champion of outcome-driven science models. A cornerstone of that effort is the Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes, which he founded in 1998 while at Columbia University and which has since transferred to Arizona State University. CSPO is dedicated to linking science and technology to optimal social, economic and environmental outcomes.

Crow also has suggested fundamental shifts in the philosophy of modern science away from mastering the physical world and optimizing the use of its resources, to one that recognizes the natural limits of Earth and attempts to work within them and to live in harmony within our world. From these concepts the central role of sustainability, the widespread adoption of interdisciplinary research and the employment of biologically inspired innovation have become cornerstones at ASU during the past decade.

The 16th president of Arizona State University, Crow is guiding the transformation of ASU into an institution that combines the highest levels of academic excellence, inclusiveness and maximum societal impact – a model he calls the New American University.

Stuart J. Newfeld is recognized by AAAS for his distinguished contributions to the field of molecular genetics via the discovery of Smad tumor suppressors and the elucidation of their function in development and cancer. Newfeld and his colleagues discovered Smad proteins while conducting research at Harvard University. His ongoing studies of these complex molecules at Arizona State University have shed new light on how cells communicate during embryonic development and how cellular miscommunication in adults can lead to tumors.

Newfeld is a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences and faculty leader of the school’s Cellular & Molecular Biosciences group. He is also the principal investigator of the NIH-funded program for Graduate and Undergraduate Training in Biomedicine in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Arizona State University.