Celebrating Smithsonian Science
Established Smithsonian scientists are honored for their contributions and young scientists are encouraged with grants and fellowships as they begin their careers.
At its founding in 1846, the Smithsonian’s was grounded in scientific discovery and education; our historic collections, field research and scientific collaborations continue to contribute to groundbreaking discoveries today. We are honored to have among our colleagues some of the world’s outstanding experts in their fields. The contributions by our colleagues have not gone unrecognized.
Three Smithsonian scientists have been elected as 2022 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ellen Stofan, Under Secretary for Science and Research; Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History; and Doug Erwin, senior research biologist and curator of Paleozoic invertebrates at the National Museum of Natural History, join 138 Smithsonian researchers, educators, curators and administrators who have received this honor over the Institution’s 176-year history.
AAAS members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by a steering group composed of their peers. The final list of Fellows is selected by the AAAS Council, the policymaking body of the association, which is chaired by the president and consists 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 Smithsonian community was pleased to learn that three of our top scientists are receiving this prestigious honor from AAAS,” Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch said. “AAAS’ recognition of our scientific impact underscores the Smithsonian’s role as one of the world’s preeminent scientific research organizations.”
Ellen Stofan
Stofan was honored for her distinguished contributions to the field of planetary science, particularly of Titan, and for significant community service and leadership.
Stofan oversees the Smithsonian’s science museums and research centers. Previously, she was the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum (2018–2021) where she was the first woman to hold that position. Under her leadership, the museum began its seven-year renovation of its flagship building in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Stofan has published extensively and received many awards and honors, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and she was named one of CNN’s “Extraordinary People of 2014.” She earned her bachelor’s degree in geology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and her master’s and doctoral degrees at Brown University, both in geological sciences. Read more about Stofan here.
Kirk Johnson
Johnson was honored for his distinguished service to the nation as director of the National Museum of Natural History, for paleobotanical and paleoclimatological research and for outreach in Earth history to the American public.
Director of the museum since 2012, Johnson oversees the world’s largest natural history collection, composed of 148 million specimens, and oversees a research community of approximately 450 scientists who collectively authored 569 scholarly publications in 2022. One of the Smithsonian’s most popular museums, the Natural History Museum attracts nearly 5 million visitors each year. Johnson is known for his scientific articles, popular books, museum exhibitions, documentaries and collaborations with artists. His recent documentaries include Making North America, Great Yellowstone Thaw, Polar Extremes and Ice Age Footprints, all of which aired on PBS channels. Johnson has a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College, a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in geology and paleobotany from Yale University. Read more about Johnson here.
Doug Erwin
Erwin, a senior research biologist and curator at the National Museum of Natural History, was honored for his distinguished contributions in paleobiology of Paleozoic and Ediacaran organisms and of extinction and radiation events in the fossil record, particularly the Permo-Triassic extinction and the radiation of Cambrian organisms.
Erwin is one of the world’s preeminent scholars of the End-Permian mass extinction and the Cambrian explosion of animals. He was a co-principal investigator on three grants from the NASA Astrobiology Institute, is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute and helps oversee the Institution’s collection of Phanerozoic invertebrate marine macrofossils, including the iconic fossils of the Burgess Shale. He has a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University and a doctorate in geological sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Read more about Erwin here.
A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor. Distinguished past honorees include author W.E.B. Du Bois, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, physicist Steven Chu, computer scientist Grace Hopper, actor and science communicator Alan Alda, engineer Mae Jemison, roboticist Ayanna Howard and molecular biologist Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado.
Our Shared Future: Life on a Sustainable Planet
This recognition of three of our top scientists underscores the Smithsonian’s role as one of the world’s preeminent scientific research organizations. The Smithsonian’s commitment to the advancement of science is a primary tenet of our strategic plan, specifically our commitment to Our Shared Future: Life on a Sustainable Planet.
As part of that commitment, we want not only to recognize the work of established scientists but also mentor and support young scientists. The new Climate Change Fellowship program is dedicated to creating sustainable, equitable environmental solutions that provide resilience to climate change and conserve the Earth’s ecosystems for all living beings.
The Smithsonian has awarded the first of these fellowships to three dedicated environmental scientists. Over two years, the fellows will conduct independent research that utilizes Smithsonian data, facilities, and expertise to advance scientific understanding of our global ecosystems and develop sustainable and equitable solutions to climate change.
The 2023 Climate Change fellows will focus on several questions related to the history and future of climate change:
Emily Pappo, University of Florida
During her fellowship at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, Pappo will model the potential impact of climate change on coffee production in a Columbian landscape. She will build her model using long-term data from the Smithsonian Bird Friendly® Coffee Program. On this Columbian landscape, she will also test models of climate solutions developed by the Zoo and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Ultimately, her work will help uncover how climate change impacts food production and identify solutions that make farms more resilient to the effects of climate change.
Ingrid C. Romero, Morehead State University
During her fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History, Romero will study plant migration and biodiversity during the Early Eocene, one of the last times the Earth experienced significant warming. From the Smithsonian’s collection, the largest collection of its kind in the world, she will examine approximately 5,000 pollen samples from that geological epoch to predict how climate change in the present time might affect plant biodiversity and migration across the North American continent.
Luca Morreale, Boston University
During his fellowship at the National Zoo and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Morreale will study the health of global forest ecosystems. He will create a tree database from the Smithsonian-led ForestGEO network, investigate the effect of climate change on tree growth and lifespan, and create an interactive dashboard to make information on forest health more accessible to researchers and practitioners.
“Please join me in congratulating our colleagues Ellen Stofan, Kirk Johnson, and Doug Irwin on their election as AAAS fellows and in welcoming our Climate Change fellows Emily Pappo, Ingrid Romero, and Lucy Morreale,” said Secretary Bunch. “Our Shared Future will be a brighter one due to the contributions of these scientists.”
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Posted: 1 February 2023
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