Thirteen Indiana University faculty members from the humanities, medicine and sciences earned election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2025 fellows class — the most fellows elected in one year in IU’s history.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest and most respected scientific organization. Researchers across disciplines are recognized as fellows for their contributions to the advancement of science and its applications. They are nominated by three current fellows, the association’s steering committee or the CEO of AAAS.
With this year’s class, 160 AAAS fellows are affiliated with IU.
The 2025 IU fellows and their AAAS citations of merit are:
- Partha Basu, professor of chemistry in the IU School of Science at IU Indianapolis, for distinguished contributions to the field of bioinorganic chemistry of molybdenum enzymes, elucidating transformation and health impacts of arsenicals, and discovery of sensitive sensors for heavy metals.
- Robert Considine, professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, for distinguished contributions to the field of endocrinology and metabolism, with focus on the physiology of adipose tissue and gastrointestinal hormones in humans.
- Jonathon Crystal, Hearst Professor and Provost Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences in Bloomington, for distinguished contributions to the field of comparative cognition, particularly for the development of animal models of episodic memory.
- Amanda Diekman, Provost Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, for distinguished contributions to social psychology, particularly in understanding the implications for STEM disciplines of how individuals navigate social structures’ perceived congruity with fundamental motives.
- Santo Fortunato, James H. Rudy Professor of Informatics and Computing in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering in Bloomington, for pioneering contributions to the science of complex networks, computational social science and the science of science, including foundational work on community detection and citation dynamics.
- Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute and Ruth N. Halls Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, for distinguished contributions to understanding evolutionary and biocultural foundations of romantic and sexual relationships across the lifespan and unwavering defense of academic freedom to promote scientific and scholarly inquiry.
- Richard Hardy, Provost Professor of Biology in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, for exceptional contributions to virology, especially in advancing the understanding of viral and host determinants of arbovirus infections, and for exemplary service in higher education.
- Patrick Loehrer, Joseph W. and Jackie J. Cusick Professor of Oncology and Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the IU School of Medicine, for distinguished contributions to the field of medical oncology, particularly in genitourinary and thymic malignancies, and for distinguished contributions in the field of global oncology.
- Pratibha Varma-Nelson, professor of chemistry in the IU School of Science, for multifaceted and distinguished contributions to undergraduate science instruction and science faculty professional development by influencing the growth of Peer-Led Team Learning strategies that promote students’ academic success and retention.
- Jason Organ, professor of anatomy, cell biology and physiology in the IU School of Medicine, for distinguished contributions to the fields of biological anthropology and functional anatomy, particularly in musculoskeletal biomechanics, innovative education and science communication.
- Gerardo Ortiz, professor of physics and the scientific director for the IU Quantum Science and Engineering Center, for fundamental contributions to strongly correlated electron matter, including the quantum Hall effect, exactly solvable models, and developing new techniques in quantum information and simulation.
- Richard Phillips, professor of ecosystem science in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Biology, for distinguished contributions to ecosystem ecology and soil biogeochemistry, particularly revealing how plant-microbe-soil interactions shape forest carbon and nutrient dynamics under global change.
- Aina Puce, the Eleanor Cox Riggs Professor Emerita of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the IU College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, for distinguished contributions to the field of cognitive/social neuroscience, particularly for multimodal investigations of face perception that forms the scaffold for automatic emotion perception and social interactions.
“This year’s class of AAAS Fellows, the largest in IU history, reflects the full scope of scientific excellence happening across IU,” IU President Pamela Whitten said. “An election to this esteemed society is a testament to a lifetime of discovery and scientific leadership. From social sciences to quantum physics, this distinguished group of researchers is advancing knowledge and improving lives all over the world.”
Partha Basu
Basu researches the field of bioinorganic chemistry and focuses on metals in biological systems as they relate to human health and the environment. A major focus of his lab is on molybdenum enzymes that play important roles in nitrogen, arsenic and sulfur metabolism.
His research has led to a fundamental understanding of oxygen-atom transfer reactions, with both biological and industrial implications. His work on roxarsone, an arsenic-containing additive used in animal farming, demonstrated the compound’s angiogenic activity and its ability to release inorganic arsenic. Basu holds five patents, including one for a class of fluorescent molecules called LeadGlow that emit light when bound to lead.
Robert Considine
Considine is the associate director of the Center for Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the School of Medicine. He studies obesity’s contribution in the development of diabetes and its complications. His current research focuses on the effects of bariatric surgery to alter gut hormone release and improve glucose homeostasis and insulin sensitivity.
Jonathon Crystal
Crystal’s research is situated at the intersection of cognitive science and behavioral neuroscience. His research focuses on developing animal models that recapitulate critical aspects of human memory.
He has developed a series of independent behavioral paradigms that document elements of episodic memory in rats. Effective implementation of these animal models holds potential for validating successful treatments for human memory disorders. His lab discovered the first evidence for several types of memory in a nonhuman (e.g., replay of episodic memories, binding of episodic memories, prospective memory, source memory and retrieval practice) and in a mammal (e.g., what-where-when memory), each published in journals ranked in the top ~1% of all journals rated on various measures of impact.
Amanda Diekman
Diekman’s research investigates how individuals navigate the social structure. With her research group, she explores how motivation intersects with the social structure to influence role entry and advancement.
Diekman’s long-standing interest is in the ways gender roles have changed or remained stable over time. She studies how beliefs around the lack of collaboration and altruism in STEM fields can diminish engagement in those fields among communally-oriented individuals and groups.
Santo Fortunato
Fortunato’s work centers on network science, with a focus on community detection in graphs, computational social science, science of science and artificial intelligence. He was elected a fellow of the Network Science Society and of the American Physical Society in 2022.
Fortunato was the founding chair of the International Conference of Computational Social Science and chair of Networks 2021, the largest event on network science. He is co-author of the book “A First Course in Network Science” by Cambridge University Press, the most accessible textbook on the new science of networks.
Justin Garcia
Garcia is an award-winning evolutionary biologist and recognized authority on the science of sex and relationships, specializing in evolution and human behavior, romantic and sexual relationships, and intimacy. He has served as executive director of the Kinsey Institute since 2019, leading interdisciplinary research and global collaborations. Widely published in peer-reviewed journals, he is also author of “The Intimate Animal” and advises industry, media and public stakeholders on the science of modern relationships.
Richard Hardy
Research in the Hardy laboratory centers on the molecular requirements for virus replication, with a focus on which molecules are necessary for the replication of the viral genetic material and the optimal expression of viral genes within host cells. Hardy studies both the viral and host components to understand virus replication in hosts.
His lab focuses on mosquito-transmitted viruses that cause disease in vertebrates. It also studies the ways in which viruses interact differently with vertebrate and arthropod hosts.
Patrick Loehrer
Loehrer is an internationally recognized researcher and specialist in testicular, gastrointestinal and thymic malignancies. Much of his career has also been devoted to establishing and advancing the field of global oncology, with an emphasis on patients in Kenya through AMPATH, a partnership of academic health centers, Kenyan government agencies and philanthropic partners.
He was one of the original four medical oncologists at the IU School of Medicine. He was also co-founder of the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, which he chaired for two decades, and the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium. From 2009 to 2021, he served as director of the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and currently directs its Center for Global Oncology.
Pratibha Varma-Nelson
Varma-Nelson is the founding executive director of the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute at IU Indianapolis. She contributed to all aspects of developing the Peer-Led Team Learning model, a new approach to teaching chemistry that has been adopted and researched nationally and internationally in STEM disciplines. She and her team also developed, evaluated and disseminated the online Cyber Peer-Led Team Learning model, which was widely adopted during COVID-19.
The Peer-Led Team Learning model promotes active learning and critical thinking by having students work in groups to solve problems through discussion and consensus-building under the guidance of a trained peer leader. This approach benefits the learners through small group discussions and the peer leader through re-examining chemistry topics and developing leadership skills.
Jason Organ
Organ’s research centers on biomechanics, examining how the structure and function of muscles and bones shape mammals’ locomotor and feeding behaviors. His scholarship also includes a robust anatomy education research program focused on making complex scientific concepts more accessible to broad public audiences. Through this work, he integrates biomechanics, anatomy and science communication to improve how science is taught and understood beyond the academy.
He led the creation of the American Association for Anatomy’s Science Communication Boot Camp, which trains scientists to engage effectively with diverse communities. Organ is the editor‑in‑chief of Anatomical Sciences Education and executive director of Indiana University’s Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching.
Gerardo Ortiz
Ortiz studies some of the most extraordinary forms of matter permitted by quantum physics — systems in which particles interact so strongly that they act collectively, giving rise to unexpected behavior. His research examines how these quantum systems reach equilibrium and how they evolve, uncovering the principles that govern emergent phenomena such as unconventional superconductivity and exotic “topological” states that can conduct without resistance.
He also explores the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics and quantum information science, including the science behind quantum computing. In particular, he develops new ways to understand quantum entanglement, which connects particles together, and creates theoretical tools to detect and harness it. Over the past decade, his work has helped shape the development of entangled quantum probes, paving the way for ultra-precise sensing, advanced materials research, and next-generation measurement technologies.
Richard Phillips
Phillips is the director of research at the IU Research and Teaching Preserve and director of the Evolution, Ecology and Behavior Ph.D. program in the Department of Biology. His research examines how plant-microbe-soil interactions regulate forest function in ways that contribute to climate resilience.
Using complementary approaches that integrate field observations, novel analytical techniques and controlled environmental systems, his work bridges the fields of plant ecophysiology, soil biogeochemistry and microbial ecology to improve predictions of ecosystem responses to environmental change. A central focus of his program is understanding how root-derived carbon inputs and variation in tree-mycorrhizal associations govern soil organic matter dynamics, nutrient cycling and forest productivity and resilience.
Aina Puce
Puce’s work centers on the brain’s ability to interpret the actions, intentions and emotions of others. She focuses on implicit and explicit aspects of nonverbal communication, as well as the context in which the actions occur. Puce’s research uses multimodal neuroimaging methods, including behavior, EEG, fMRI, event-related response, eye tracking and white matter tractography.
She is also active internationally in formulating best scientific practices for neuroimaging methods, mainly through the Organization for Human Brain Mapping. This is a professional society of which she is a fellow and past president; she remains an active member, currently serving on its Scientific Advisory Board.
This was written by IU storyteller Christiane Wisehart for the IU Newsroom.
The College of Arts