UConn Health University News

January 26, 2022 | Mike Enright '88 (CLAS), University Communications

Five From UConn Named Fellows By AAAS

The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society

The value of UConn’s research in driving economic development and transforming lives was highlighted Friday in an event led by the National Science Foundation, which supports many of the University’s most critical projects through significant grant funding.

(Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

Five University of Connecticut faculty members have been elected by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to its newest class of fellows. The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

The five are:

  • Dr. Effie Ioannidou, a professor of oral health and diagnostic sciences in the UConn School of Dental Medicine and the director of the Dental Clinical Research Center
  • Dr. Joseph Lorenzo, a professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism and director of bone biology research at UConn Health
  • Nalini Ravishanker, a professor in the Department of Statistics
  • Dr. Pramod Srivastava, a professor in the Department of Immunology in the UConn School of Medicine
  • Peter Turchin, a professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Mathematics

Ioannidou studies the association between chronic periodontitis and chronic kidney disease. Her multidisciplinary research approach, which involves periodontology, nephrology, microbiology, epidemiology, nutrition and behavioral sciences investigates the interactions between the two diseases.

Lorenzo is a nationally renowned expert in endocrinology and metabolic bone diseases. His clinical interests center on the management of patients with osteoporosis and other metabolic bone disorders. Lorenzo’s research interests focus on the regulation of bone remodeling by hormones and cytokines and the interaction of the immune and skeletal systems.

Ravishanker’s research interests include time series modeling, times-to-events analysis, statistical methods in actuarial science, marketing, environmental engineering and transportation engineering.

Srivastava is an accomplished leader in basic and translational research, and is the director of the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center at UConn Health. He has earned international acclaim for his groundbreaking work in the immunological function of heat shock proteins and in cancer immunology, is widely published in scholarly journals and serves on editorial boards for several major journals in immunology.

Turchin conducts research on the cultural evolution and historical dynamics of past and present societies. His research interests lie at the intersection of sociocultural evolution, historical macrosociology, economic history and cliometrics, mathematical modeling of long-term social processes, and the construction and analysis of historical databases.

The latest class of AAAS Fellows includes 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements. AAAS first started naming Fellow in 1874.

The AAAS is the publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more.