Deb Niemeier
APS Member, elected 2021
Deb Niemeier uses civil engineering to advocate for a more equitable and just future for everyone. Throughout her career, she has consistently focused on the unintended consequences of design and how they can be fixed.
Her early research focused on transportation and pollution, specifically how people's behavior on the road could change how much pollution was emitted by cars. When she showed that those pollutants traveled farther than California state guidelines accounted for, policy changes were made to better protect against the health hazard. While a professor at UC Davis, she founded the Sustainable Design Academy to allow students to work on projects focused on sustainable engineering.
In 2019, Dr. Niemeier joined the faculty of University of Maryland, College Park as the Clark Distinguished Chair in Sustainability and a Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her work is grounded in the study of how existing infrastructure systems can harm marginalized communities, especially in light of climate change and disasters. She collaborates with professionals across many fields to understand structural inequality and to find solutions for ongoing structural inequality. In 2022, she became Director of the University's Center for Disaster Resilience. She is a member of NAE, a Guggenheim Fellow and was awarded the 2023 Bower Award for Science Achievement.
New Members
Elected 2023
Each year, the American Philosophical Society elects new Members from all different disciplines. This year, eight female scientists have been elected to the membership:
Lene Vestergaard Hau
Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University.
Lene Hau led a team who succeeded in slowing a pulse of light at 15 miles per hour and also brought light to a stop. Subsequent results represent the ultimate quantum control of light and matter.
Marilyn Raphael
Director, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, Professor, Department of Geography, University of California, Los Angeles; Affiliate Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Marilyn Raphael is an internationally prominent Antarctic research scientist, best known for her work on climate change and variability in the south polar region.
Carol Vivien Robinson
Dr. Lee's Professor of Physical Science and Theoretical Chemistry, Professional Fellow, Exeter College, Founder Director, Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery, Founder Director, OMass Therapeutics, University of Oxford.
Carol Robinson is recognized for establishing mass spectrometry as a viable technology to study the structure and function of proteins.
Rosina M. Bierbaum
Roy F. Westin Chair in Natural Economics, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland; Professor of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, University of Michigan.
Rosina Bierbaum is an ecologist working at the environment-science-policy interface, particularly on climate change, adaptation, and development issues.
Barbara Anna Schaal
Mary Dell Chilton Distinguished Professor of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis.
Barbara Schaal is a plant evolutionary biologist who uses DNA sequences to understand evolutionary processes such as gene flow, geographical differentiation and the domestication of crop species.
Jennifer Lynn Eberhardt
Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, William R. Kimball Professor at the Graduate School of Business, Professor of Psychology and by courtesy, of Law, Co-Director, SPARQ (Social Psychological Answers to Real-World Questions), Stanford University.
Psychological scientist Jennifer Eberhardt defines the visual perception of race. Her 2020 tour- de-force is Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do.
Kathryn Edin
William Church Osborn Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Director, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing, Princeton University.
Kathryn Edin's research has taken on key mysteries about poverty that have not been fully answered by prior research. The hallmark of her research is her direct, in-depth observations of the lives of low-income women, men, and children.
Naomi Ellemers
Distinguished University Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Utrecht University.
Naomi Ellemer's scientific publications explain how group affiliations shape individuals, in work and life—especially self-categorizing as a group member, permeability of boundaries, within-group variability, group commitment, and group esteem.
