IPST Faculty, Abba Gumel and Wolfgang Losert, elected AAAS Fellows
Abba Gumel (IPST / Math / Biology) and Wolfgang Losert (IPST / Physics) have been elected Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They join Computer Science faculty Mohammad Hajiaghayi and Dana Nau in the 2022 class of AAAS Fellows.
“I join the CMNS community in congratulating Professors Gumel, Hajiaghayi, Losert and Nau on their well-deserved election as AAAS Fellows,” said CMNS Dean Amitabh Varshney. “This is an affirmation of what we already know—that they are each pushing the boundaries in their respective fields and making a significant impact on the grand challenges our society faces today.”
Abba Gumel joined UMD in fall 2022 as the Michael and Eugenia Brin Endowed Chair in Mathematics. His research primarily involves designing, analyzing and simulating mathematical models to gain insight and understanding of the transmission dynamics and control of emerging, re-emerging and resurging infectious diseases.
Some of his past research demonstrated the dynamics of dengue disease-carrying mosquitoes, the impact of quarantine on an Ebola outbreak and the ability of face masks to slow the spread of COVID-19. Last year, he was awarded the Bellman Prize at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Mathematical Biology for a paper on the links between malaria transmission and climate. In the coming years, one of Gumel’s top research goals is working toward the global ZERO by 40 initiative, which aims to eradicate malaria by 2040.
Wolfgang Losert aims to discover emergent dynamic properties of complex systems at the interface of physics and biology. He currently leads a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research that transformed our understanding of how cells sense their physical environment. He also serves as co-principal investigator on a Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) initiative center grant from the National Institutes of Health focused on information processing in sensory brain circuits.
AAAS Fellows are a distinguished cadre of scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized for their achievements across disciplines, from research, teaching, and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public. Election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor and all Fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.
