4 UCLA faculty elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Four UCLA professors have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of their contributions to the advancement of science and its applications in service to society.

Founded in 1848, the nonprofit association is one of the largest general scientific societies in the world, with more than 120,000 members, and publishes Science and its related family of journals.

The UCLA faculty members are among the 449 newly elected fellows across disciplines in academia, technology and government. They will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C., on May 29.

"These Fellows and their accomplishments validate the importance of investing in science and technology for the benefit of all," said Sudip S. Parikh, CEO of the association.

UCLA's new fellows are:

Stuart Brown
Professor and chair of physics and astronomy, UCLA College

Brown specializes in a branch of physics known as experimental condensed matter, which explores the physical properties of materials by directly measuring how they behave under conditions like temperature, pressure and magnetic force. He is particularly interested in using nuclear magnetic resonance to probe the hidden behavior of electrons in complex materials; by doing so, he can detect subtle changes in their magnetic and electronic structure, revealing how these materials transition between different states. Beyond fundamental physics, this work has implications for future technologies, including quantum computing and advanced electronics, where controlling electron behavior is key.

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Marilyn Raphael
Professor of geography, UCLA College and UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability

Raphael is a climate scientist who studies global climate change, atmospheric circulation, and the complex dynamics behind how and why Antarctica's sea ice levels vary from season to season. Her recent research indicates that melting Antarctic sea ice is becoming far less likely to recover, suggesting the continent's ice system is undergoing a major transformation. Raphael is the co-author of "The Encyclopedia of Weather and Climate Change: A Complete Visual Guide," and her research and writing help to shape both academic inquiry and public understanding of polar climate dynamics. She is the former director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the former chair of UCLA's geography department, as well as a past president of the American Association of Geographers.

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Alexander Spokoyny
Professor and chair of chemistry and biochemistry, UCLA College

Spokoyny works at the cutting edge of modern chemistry, where he is rethinking what molecules can look like and what they can do. He leads an interdisciplinary research program that focuses on "organomimetic" cluster chemistry, which uses 3D boron-based molecules - known as boron clusters - as building blocks for entirely new kinds of materials and reagents. These clusters have unique electronic and structural properties, allowing his lab to design materials with capabilities that conventional chemistry can't easily achieve. His research, which bridges chemistry, biology and materials science, is expanding the boundaries of chemistry and showing how new molecular architectures can be engineered to solve pressing problems in areas as diverse as medicine, technology and sustainability.

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Yongkang Xue
Professor of geography, UCLA College

Xue has spent his career showing that the land beneath us is anything but passive in shaping the planet's weather. His research focuses on how soil, vegetation, snow and land use interact dynamically with the atmosphere to influence climate patterns - sometimes intensifying droughts, steering monsoons or leading toextreme weather around the globe. At the heart of this work is the Simplified Simple Biosphere model, a pioneering tool he was instrumental in developing to capture land-atmosphere feedbacks and to understand their function within larger climate systems. He has also led international efforts to pioneer new approaches to meteorological prediction. A member of the UCLA Natural Hazards Risk and Resiliency Research Center and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Xue has helped deepen our understanding of how the Earth system works.