CSU faculty members Edwin Chong and Amy Charkowski have been named fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Each year since 1874, the American Association for the Advancement of Science has elected a distinguished group of scientists as Fellows. This year, among those honored with the lifetime designation are two faculty members from Colorado State University: Amy Charkowski, a professor of agricultural biology in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and Edwin Chong, a professor of electrical and computer engineering in the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering and a professor of mathematics in the College of Natural Sciences.
According to AAAS, Fellows are scientists whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science, or its applications, are scientifically or socially distinguished.”
Charkowski is being recognized “for distinguished contributions to the field of plant pathology, particularly for translating discoveries about the molecular basis of soft rot diseases to prevent crop losses.”
Her work has specialized in researching potatoes and their pathogens and best management. She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison before joining CSU as the head of Plant Pathology in 2016. She is currently head of the Department of Agricultural Biology.
Chong, who is also the director of ISTeC – the CSU Information Science and Technology Center – and associate head of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is being honored “for distinguished contributions to optimization and control theory and methods, particularly for stochastic networks and wireless systems.”
Chong is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He received his Ph.D. from Princeton and was a professor at Purdue University before joining the faculty at CSU in 2001.
AAAS typically honors new Fellows in a formal ceremony at their annual meeting. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the event will be held virtually Feb. 13, 2021. The Fellows will also be announced in the Nov. 27 issue of the journal Science, which the organization publishes.
Charkowski and Chong join more than 110 researchers from Colorado State, going back to the 1920s, to be named AAAS Fellows. The association is the world’s largest general scientific society and serves more than 10 million individuals through its mission to advance science and serve society.
