BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Five Indiana University faculty have been elected to the newest class of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This is one of the most distinguished honors within the scientific community, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the progress of science and research.
The 2022 IU fellows and their AAAS citations of merit are:
- James Glazier, professor of intelligent systems engineering in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at IU Bloomington and director of the Biocomplexity Institute, for the development of theoretical models of cellular morphogenesis, their application in multi-model open-source modeling software and disseminating computational biological modeling methods.
- Leonie Moyle, professor and Department of Biology associate chair for research and facilities in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences, for elucidating the links between genetic and ecological causes of speciation in plants.
- Mary Murphy, Class of 1948 Herman B Wells Endowed Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences in the at IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences, for distinguished contributions to the field of social psychology, particularly for advancing identity threat theory and developing empirically based solutions to women’s and people of color’s underrepresentation in STEM.
- Irene Newton, professor in the Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, for distinguished contributions to the molecular, microbial and evolutionary biology of symbioses.
- XiaoFeng Wang, associate dean for research and the James H. Rudy Professor of Computer Science and Engineering in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering at at IU Bloomington, for distinguished contributions to the field of systems security and data privacy, particularly for security analysis and protection of computing systems and protection of human genomic data.
“To be elected by one’s peers as an AAAS fellow is a tremendous honor, bestowed only to those who are exceptional scholars and innovators in their fields,” IU President Pamela Whitten said. “IU is stronger thanks to these remarkable faculty members and their incredible service as teachers and researchers. We celebrate the impact their scientific contributions have made and continue to make here in Indiana and across the world.”
James GlazierJames Glazier
Glazier held faculty positions in physics at the University of Notre Dame and visiting positions at the University of California Santa Barbara, the University of Western Australia, the University of Grenoble in France and Tohoku University in Japan before coming to IU Bloomington. His research focuses on applying physics-based computer simulations to understand embryonic development, developmental and chronic toxicity, and developmental and infectious diseases. He also applies these simulations to develop and optimize disease treatment.
He is an active member of numerous international research collaborations between experimental and computational biomedical scientists. He leads the collaborative development of the open-source CompuCell3D multi-scale modeling environment. He actively disseminates these methods, teaching an annual virtual weeklong workshop on multiscale virtual-tissue modeling. He is director of the Biocomplexity Institute at Indiana University.
In 2016, he became one of the founding members of IU’s Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering — the first engineering program at IU Bloomington. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Institute of Physics in London and has served as chair of the Division of Biological Physics of the American Physical Society. He co-leads the IMAG/MSM Working Group on Multiscale Modeling and Viral Pandemics and is active in the development of infrastructure and community for the creation of biomedical digital twins.
Leonie MoyleLeonie Moyle
Moyle is an evolutionary geneticist studying the origin of new traits and new species.
Her research examines the accumulation of reproductive barriers between emerging species, how these interact with traits involved in adaptation, and the specific genes that contribute to both processes. This work uses both animal and plant systems — including wild relatives of the economically important tomato — and ranges from fieldwork on the Galapagos Islands through to assembly and analysis of whole genomes.
She was North American vice president of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 2021-22.
Mary MurphyMary Murphy
Murphy is the founder of the Equity Accelerator at Indiana University, a research, practice and policy organization focused on creating more equitable learning and working environments through social and behavioral science. In the realm of education, her research illuminates the situational cues — like faculty and institutional mindset — that influence students’ academic motivation and achievement with an emphasis on understanding when those processes are similar and different for structurally advantaged and disadvantaged students. She develops, implements and evaluates interventions that reduce identity threat and spur students’ motivation, persistence and performance.
In the realm of organizations and tech, her research examines barriers and solutions for building gender and racial diversity and inclusion in STEM fields. In particular, she examines the role of organizational mindset in companies’ organizational culture, employee engagement and performance, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Murphy completed a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. In 2012, she joined the faculty of Indiana University and, in 2013, was named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. In 2019, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers — the highest honor bestowed on early career scientists by the U.S. government.
She is the recipient of over $9 million in federal and foundation grants, including a $2.2 million NSF CAREER award for her research on strategies to improve diversity in STEM. Her new book on organizational mindset, “Cultures of Growth,” is set to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2023.
Irene NewtonIrene Newton
Newton is a microbiologist who studies the molecular mechanisms of microbial symbioses. She studies insect model systems as hosts, and her recent work focuses on both the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) and the honey bee (Apis mellifera), to understand how their associated microbes increase resilience to pathogens and environmental stresses.
Newton is the vice president of the International Symbiosis Society, editor-in-chief of the American Society for Microbiology journal Microbiology Resource Announcements and the 2023 ASM Honorary Diversity Lecture awardee.
XiaoFeng WangXiaoFeng Wang
Wang is a co-director of the Center for Security and Privacy in Informatics, Computing and Engineering, and was the director of the Master of Science in secure computing program. He is the director and lead principal investigator of the Center for Distributed Confidential Computing, a Frontiers Project in Secure and Trustworthy Computing funded by the National Science Foundation. The project is a multi-institution effort, involving faculty from IU (lead), CMU, Duke, OSU, Penn State, Purdue, Spelman and Yale.
In the past 20 years, Wang has been working on a broad range of research topics in systems security and data privacy. He is considered to be one of the most prominent systems security and privacy researchers, and a top author according to online statistics such as CSRankings, System Security Circus and Top Authors, the Systems Circus. Since joining IU in 2004, Wang has been serving as principal investigator on research projects totaling nearly $23 million.
Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. The five faculty members’ election brings the number of AAAS fellows affiliated with IU to 138. Election as a fellow is a lifetime honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
