Three faculty members in the College of LAS have been named 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.
Anthropology professor Kathryn Clancy, astronomy and physics professor Charles Gammie, and psychology professor emeritus Art Kramer are among the 449 scientists, engineers and innovators chosen by their peers for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements.
Clancy’s work is highly influential in creating awareness of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace. Some significant ripple effects of her work include legislative bills, congressional briefings on legislative mechanisms to address sexual harassment and continued journalistic and professional attention on the issue of harassment in academia. She is the author of the award-winning book, “Period: The Real Story of Menstruation,” published in 2023 and translated into five languages, and of another, “Pregnancy Interrupted: The Science and Stories of How Pregnancies Really End,” which will be out in August. She was honored “for distinguished contributions to the field of anthropology, particularly for research on reproductive ecologies, menstruation, and experiences of harassment and assault in scientific research.” Clancy also is affiliated with gender and women’s studies, the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity and the Center for Social and Behavioral Science at the U.of I.
Gammie is a leading theoretical and computational astrophysicist. His work has expanded our understanding of black holes, hot plasmas and the formation of stars and planets. He is distinguished in the field for his command of both the theory of general relativity and mathematics. He led the Theory Working Group of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, which captured the first image of a black hole. He was honored “for distinguished contributions to theoretical astrophysics, particularly for advancing the understanding of black hole accretion and magnetohydrodynamics, and for leadership in interpreting Event Horizon Telescope observations.” Gammie is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and also is affiliated with the Illinois Center for Advanced Study of the Universe and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Illinois.
Kramer was the founding director of the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health and a psychology professor at Northeastern University in Boston from 2016-2025. Before that, he served as the director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Swanlund Chair and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the U of I. He earned his PhD in cognitive/experimental psychology at the U of I and joined the Illinois faculty in 1984. His research focuses on healthy aging, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience and human factors. A major focus of recent research from his laboratory is the understanding and enhancement of cognitive and neural plasticity across the lifespan. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and has served on a multitude of national and international scientific committees.
