Five Penn professors were recently named honorary fellows for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Association selected professors from the School of Arts and Sciences, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Perelman School of Medicine to join a fellowship class of nearly 450 researchers across 24 scientific disciplines. The Daily Pennsylvanian spoke with three Penn honorees about their research interests.
Mathematics professor Danny Krashen said that being selected as an AAAS Fellow allows him to make “connections with other researchers in different areas” and serves as a “good excuse to start new collaborations.”
Krashen, who has been awarded multiple National Science Foundation grants and is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society, explained that his work is “connected to theoretical physics.” He primarily studies algebraic structures — using “shapes” and “numbers” to understand the arithmetic of algebraic structures.
He explained that he has been reading AAAS’ Science magazine “since eighth grade,” and has subscribed to the publication since making the selection is “fun and meaningful.”
Professor of pediatrics Kai Tan echoed Krashen’s sentiments and expressed that he is “deeply honored” to be selected as a fellow. Tan, who has been at Penn for 11 years, leads a lab that studies cellular development and human disease.
His research focuses on gene regulation by modeling multimodal genomics data, with the “ultimate goal” of identifying “key switches or key nodes in the regulatory network.”
“I think science is at an inflection point,” Tan said, adding that pharmaceutical companies “are very interested in this kind of integrated computational approach.”
Chemistry professor Patrick Walsh, another newly named fellow, said that his research focuses on creating “catalysts to make organic compounds” and highlighted students’ involvement in his recognized work.
“My research tends to be very broad,” Walsh said. “A lot of times it’s students who are coming up with directions to go and ideas.”
The two other awardees are electrical and systems engineering professors George Pappas and Cherie Kagan.
Pappas serves as associate dean for research and innovation in Penn Engineering and director of the Raj and Neera Singh program in Artificial Intelligence. His research focus on control systems, autonomous systems, and secure machine learning.
Kagan directs research at the Engineering Research Center for the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture. Her work is focused on the use of nanostructured materials in advanced devices for electronics, photonics, and sensing.
AAASC has elected fellows since 1874, recognizing individuals for their “extraordinary achievements across disciplines.” The 2025 honorary fellowship class will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C., this June.
