Four University of Chicago scholars were named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for their distinguished contributions to the sciences.
Erin J. Adams, Seth Darling, Vincenzo Vitelli and Carlos E.M. Wagner were among the fellows elected as AAAS members for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications.
Erin J. Adams is the Joseph Regenstein Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and currently serves as Vice Provost for Research at UChicago.
Adams’ research uses structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysics to understand how certain components of the immune system distinguish healthy tissue from that of diseased. Through understanding the biological mechanisms and outcomes of this recognition, her laboratory seeks to translate this information to clinical applications in the treatment of infectious disease, cancer, and autoimmunity.
As vice provost for research, she oversees both administration and development of the research enterprise at the University of Chicago, including managing the broad research infrastructure that constitutes the foundation to UChicago’s research enterprise, as well as facilitating large-scale, cross-disciplinary initiatives through her oversight of the Office of Research Development Support and the University of Chicago Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering. She is a member of the Committees on Immunology, Cancer Biology, Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology; the Comprehensive Cancer Center; and was a founding faculty member of the myCHOICE Career Development program.
Adams was cited for “outstanding contributions to molecular immunology research, research administration and strategic leadership, community outreach and engagement, and graduate education and career development programming.”
Seth Darling is the chief science and technology officer for the Advanced Energy Technologies Directorate and senior scientist in the Chemical Sciences & Engineering Division at Argonne National Laboratory, and is a CASE senior scientist at UChicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.
Darling is the director of the Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) Energy Frontier Research Center. His group’s research centers around molecular engineering, with a current emphasis on advanced materials for cleaning water, having made previous contributions in fields ranging from self-assembly to advanced lithography to solar energy.
He has published over 140 scientific articles, holds over a dozen patents, is a co-author of popular books on water and on debunking climate skeptic myths, and lectures widely on topics related to energy, water, and climate.
He was cited for “pioneering advancements in materials for energy and environmental applications and for exceptional public engagement efforts, fostering widespread appreciation and understanding of scientific innovation.”
Vincenzo Vitelli is a professor of physics and a member of the James Franck Institute, the Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Data Science Institute and the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics. He is the director of the UChicago-CNRS International Research Center for Fundamental Discovery.
His research interests span several areas at the interface between physical and biological sciences, engineering and applied mathematics. His recent work encompasses AI for science, quantitative biology, active matter, machine learning, robotics, metamaterials, topological insulators, hydrodynamics, dynamical systems and soft materials.
Vitelli’s research explores how the rich phenomenology of complex systems arises from the interplay between strong non-linearities, disorder and dynamics far from equilibrium that he explores using analytical and numerical tools and often in close collaboration with experimentalists.
He is cited for “foundational theoretical work in the fields of topological mechanics, odd elasticity and non-reciprocal interactions.”
Carlos E.M. Wagner is a professor of physics and member of the Enrico Fermi Institute, Leinweber Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics at UChicago. He also holds a joint appointment at Argonne National Laboratory, where he served as head of the high-energy physics theory group for 20 years. He is currently the Distinguished Visitor Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute.
Wagner’s area of research is phenomenology of particle physics, namely the study of the interactions of elementary particles, with a special emphasis on collider physics, Higgs physics, the theory of dark matter and the origin of the asymmetry between matter and anti-matter.
He is cited for “groundbreaking contributions to the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking and its phenomenological consequences, and for outstanding mentorship of junior colleagues.”
