A current Cornell faculty member and an incoming professor have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.

The 2024 class includes 471 scientists, engineers and innovators across 24 AAAS disciplinary sections. The new fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin to commemorate their election. They will be celebrated June 7 at a forum in Washington, D.C.

Cornell’s 2024 AAAS fellows:

Jed Sparks, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, was honored for distinguished contributions to the fields of ecology and environmental science, particularly for work at the interface of plant ecology, biogeochemistry and physiology in the service of understanding global change. The Sparks Lab seeks to answer a range of questions relating to plant physiology and ecology, ecosystem science and the application of stable isotopes to ecological questions.

danah boyd, currently a visiting professor from Microsoft Research who’ll start her Cornell appointment on July 1 in the Department of Communication, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was recognized for distinguished contributions in the field of information science, particularly for research on the intersection of technology and society, especially issues of inequity and bias. Her research also examines how youth come of age, negotiate privacy, navigate conflict and find their footing in a media-saturated society.

Founded in 1848, the AAAS comprises more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The first AAAS fellows were elected in 1874.