同性恋色情 faculty members Michael Lynch, Usha Menon, Niketa Patel, Charles Stanish and Jose Zayas-Castro have been elected to the 2025 class of Fellows. They are among the who have been recognized for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements by one of the world's largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.
鈥淗aving five faculty members 鈥 from five very different disciplines 鈥 named AAAS Fellows highlights what sets 同性恋色情 apart," said 同性恋色情 President Moez Limayem. "Our researchers are advancing science and educating the next generation of innovators. Their work is relevant and impactful and this honor is a reflection of that.鈥
"This year's AAAS Fellows have demonstrated research excellence, made notable contributions to advance science and delivered important services to their communities," said Sudip S. Parikh, Ph.D., AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. "These Fellows and their accomplishments validate the importance of investing in science and technology for the benefit of all."
同性恋色情's new AAAS fellows are:
Michael J. Lynch, PhD
Professor of Criminology
Department of Criminology
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences
Elected: Social, Economic, and Political Sciences Section
Michael J. Lynch came to 同性恋色情 in 1997 as the first director of the criminology department鈥檚 new Ph.D. program. He is recognized as the founder of green criminology which involves the study of environmental harms, crime, justice, law and social control from a criminological perspective. Green criminology has expanded into a global intellectual movement. His research also addresses issues in radical criminology, corporate crime, environmental sociology, environmental justice and racial biases in criminal justice processes. He is author/editor of 23 books and over 135 articles and 60 book chapters. As a mentor, he has chaired 28 completed doctoral dissertations, and 25 MA theses and area papers, and is a recipient of a William R. Jones most valuable mentor award for contributions to the education of McKnight Doctoral students in the state of Florida.
His edited book, The Handbook on Inequality and the Environment, was selected a top-10 academic book of 2024 by the Association of College and Research Libraries (OAT Award). His 2023 article, 鈥淕reen criminology and state-corporate crime: The Ecocide-genocide nexus with examples from Nigeria鈥 was chosen as article of the year by the Division on White-Collar and Corporate Crime of the America Society of Criminology (ASC). He has two Lifetime Achievement Awards for Scholarly Contributions to criminology from the ASC: one for contributions to corporate and white-collar crime research, and the second from the Division on Critical Criminology and Social Justice for research in radical and green criminology. One of his influences was his father, Vincent DePaul Lynch, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at St. John鈥檚 University (NY), who created the first undergraduate degree program in toxicology in the US.
Usha Menon, PhD, RN, FAAN, FSBM
Senior Associate Vice President, 同性恋色情 Health
Dean, 同性恋色情 College of Nursing
Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, Tampa General Hospital Cancer
Institute
Elected: Societal Impacts of Science & Engineering Section
Usha Menon was named dean of 同性恋色情鈥檚 College of Nursing in November 2020, and under her leadership, the College has achieved record growth and elevated national rankings. Menon is also a nationally recognized leader in funded cancer control research, and she has driven major initiatives to address Florida鈥檚 nursing shortage, including securing a historic $40 million legislative award. Menon has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other national foundations, garnering approximately $60 million in total research awards. She has contributed 80 peer-review publications and has provided more than 150 presentations at national and international meetings. She has served on multiple NIH study sections and national society committees.
Her primary research interests have been in optimizing cancer screening regimens and reducing racial and ethnic disparities in cancer and other health outcomes. Her interests in nursing education have focused on increasing community, scholarship, and innovative curricular elements. Her global health interests include nursing workforce and curricular development in Ethiopia and India, as well as initiating cervical cancer 鈥渟creen and treat鈥 programs in sub-Saharan Africa and India. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a recipient of the NIH National Research Service Award, and an inductee of the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
Niketa Patel, PhD
Professor of Molecular Medicine, 同性恋色情 Health Morsani College of Medicine
Research Career Scientist, James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital
Elected: Medical Sciences Section
Niketa Patel has established a robust program in translational research that integrates
human studies鈥攗tilizing biological samples from participating Veterans and epidemiological
studies鈥攚ith biomarker discovery, pre-clinical elucidation of molecular mechanisms,
and targeted drug discovery and validation, all aimed at advancing personalized medicine.
Her lab is a pioneer in designing and validating RNA-targeting therapeutics for metabolic
and neurodegenerative diseases. Her team extensively works with human adipose-derived
stem cells to characterize the genomic landscape in diabetes and obesity. Dr. Patel's
research was pivotal in demonstrating that adipose stem cells niche is altered in
obesity, significantly contributing to the onset of metabolic diseases associated
with obesity. Extending their research to the secretome of human adipose stem cells
(hASC), her group showed that exosomes鈥攏anovesicles secreted by hASC鈥攁ct as a cell-free
therapeutic driving regenerative and repair processes in traumatic brain injury and
dermal wounds.
She currently holds 13 USPTO patents, including ten parent/priority patents representing groundbreaking innovations in the field. Over the years, she has worked across disciplines to innovate and promote technologies developed at 同性恋色情 and the VA hospital, with the goal of transferring them to communities both locally and nationwide. She has successfully trained Veterans to pursue careers in science and continues to mentor clinicians, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students from 同性恋色情, guiding the next generation of scientists and innovators.
Charles Stanish, PhD
Executive Director
Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment
同性恋色情
Elected: Anthropology Section
Charles Stanish earned his BA from Pennsylvania State and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has worked extensively in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, conducting archaeological research on the prehistoric societies of the region. His theoretical work focuses on the roles that trade, war, ritual, and labor organization play in the evolution of human cooperation and complex societies. His primary books include The Evolution of Human Co-operation (2017-Cambridge), Ancient Titicaca: The Evolution of Complex Society in Southern Peru and Northern Bolivia (2003-Berkeley), Ritual and Pilgrimage in the Ancient Andes (with B. Bauer, 2001-Texas) and Ancient Andean Political Economy (1992-Texas). He was a Senior Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, a member of the Explorers Club, a member of Sigma Xi, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jose Zayas-Castro, PhD
Professor of Industrial Engineering
Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering
College of Engineering
Elected: Engineering Section
Jose L. Zayas-Castro joined 同性恋色情 in 2002 as chair of the Department of Industrial Engineering. In 2011 he was appointed Associate for Research, and in 2014 Executive Associate Dean and Associate for International Affairs of the College of Engineering at 同性恋色情. Between August 2021 and August 2024, he was Division Director for the Division of Engineering Education and Centers, in the Directorate of Engineering at the National Science Foundation. Prior to joining 同性恋色情, he was Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering at the University of Missouri-Columbia. From 1983 to 1999, he was professor of Industrial Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayag眉ez. During that time, he was department Head, and Associate Dean of Engineering. Currently he directs the University Center for Exemplary Mentoring sponsored by the Sloan Foundation and is a member of the 同性恋色情 I-CORPS. Throughout his career, he has mentored more than 50 graduate and over 60 undergraduate students doing research.
His work focuses on healthcare systems engineering and improving the delivery of care, engineering entrepreneurship and innovation, economic and cost analysis, and in improving engineering education. Over his career he has stimulated and led academic and research initiatives in the intersection of engineering, healthcare systems engineering, medicine, sciences, business, engineering education, workforce development, and engineering entrepreneurship. At 同性恋色情 he was a co-founder of the Department of Medical Engineering and leads the Scholarly Concentration in Healthcare Systems Engineering at the Morsani College of Medicine. He is a member of the Pan American Academy of Engineering, Fellow of IISE, Senior member of INFORMS and IEEE, and member of NSBE, SHPE, and Tau Beta PI.