AAAS selects four faculty as fellows

Four Carolina faculty members have been selected as 2022 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the academic journal Science.

The new Carolina fellows are Carol Arnosti, Michael Crimmins and Barbara Fredrickson in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Melinda Beck in the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Arnosti is a professor in the department of earth, marine and environmental sciences. She joined Carolina’s marine sciences faculty in 1995. She and members of her lab investigate microbially driven carbon cycling in the ocean. Arnosti was recognized for discovering new patterns and pathways of microbial degradation of complex carbon in marine environments through the development of methods to measure extracellular enzyme activities involved in carbon cycling.

Crimmins is professor emeritus of chemistry. He was recognized for important contributions to complex natural products synthesis through the development of photocycloadditions, asymmetric aldol reactions and olefin metathesis reactions, as well as for innovation in chemical education. Crimmins, who joined Carolina’s faculty in 1981, served as chair of the chemistry department and senior associate dean for natural sciences.

Fredrickson is Kenan Distinguished Professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience. She studies emotions, well-being and positive psychology. Fredrickson was recognized for her seminal research demonstrating the adaptive value of positive emotions and extraordinary dissemination of this knowledge to general audiences.

Beck is professor and interim chair in Gillings’ department of nutrition. She has been a faculty member at Carolina for more than 30 years. She joined the nutrition faculty in 1996. Researchers in her lab study the relationship between host nutrition and the immune response to infectious disease, including an ongoing clinical study of the mechanisms that impair flu vaccine response in obese adults compared with healthy weight adults.