Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
They are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized this year for their distinguished scientific and social achievements.
Being elected as an AAAS Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors awarded by the association.
Berhe is recognized for her distinguished contributions to soil sciences and for her exemplary leadership in scientific organizations, leading to a more equitable and innovative scientific culture.
"Being elected as a Fellow of AAAS is a deeply meaningful recognition, not just for the science I have worked on, but for the journey that brought me here, from growing up in Eritrea to studying how soil shapes our climate and our collective future,” Berhe said. “The work that I do, with my mentees and collaborators that I share this honor with, has always been rooted in the belief that improving our understanding of the soil system, through basic soil science research, is what equips us to address the most significant challenges humanity faces, from soil health to food security to climate change. I also hope it encourages young scientists who might not always see themselves reflected in spaces like this to keep going.”
Among her many accomplishments, Berhe is a renowned professor of soil biogeochemistry in the Department of Life and Environmental Sciences in the School of Natural Sciences; the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology; a member of the National Academy of Engineering; the director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute; and has served as interim associate dean for Graduate Education. She was also confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the federal director of the Office of Science for the Department of Energy during President Joseph R. Biden’s administration.
Berhe is known for her advocacy for inclusion, anti-harassment and anti-bullying. She previously served as the chair of the U.S. National Committee on Soil Science at the National Academies; was a leadership board member for the Earth Science Women’s Network; and is a co-principal investigator in the ADVANCEGeo Partnership — a National Science Foundation-funded effort to empower geoscientists to respond to and prevent harassment, discrimination, bullying and other exclusionary behaviors in research environments.
Yang, who joined AAAS in 2021, is being recognized for distinguished contributions to the field of computer vision, particularly for visual tracking, low-level vision and visual learning. He has appeared on Clarivate’s list of highly cited researchers for the past eight years, demonstrating the influence of his research.
“I am deeply honored to be named a Fellow of the AAAS and sincerely thank the AAAS for this recognition. My research focuses on vision and learning, aiming to develop robust and scalable methods for visual understanding and generation. This honor reflects the collective efforts of my students, collaborators and colleagues,” he said. “I am especially grateful to my students, whose creativity and dedication have led to impactful contributions, including impactful publications, open-source work, and advances in visual tracking, low-level vision and multimodal learning. I also thank my collaborators for their invaluable insights and continued support.”
Yang, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the School of Engineering, is known for his seminal work in face detection, object tracking and representation learning. Now, his group is pushing into vision‑language models — systems that connect images and text and increasingly power generative tools and reasoning engines. He was elected a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in 2025; and was previously named a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery; and a Fellow in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
A tradition dating back to 1874, 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, the society said in a press release. Distinguished past honorees include Ellen Ochoa, Steven Chu, Grace Hopper, Alan Alda, Mae Jemison and Ayanna Howard.
The AAAS Fellows program recognizes individuals whose efforts to advance science or its applications have been deemed scientifically or socially distinguished by their peers. Fellows are selected from a broad range of disciplines — from biology and physics to engineering, education and public policy. The honor reflects a career of impactful contributions to research, leadership and service to the scientific community.
The 2025 class comprises engineers and innovators across 24 AAAS disciplinary sections.
“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."
