Claudio Cioffi-Revilla
A George Mason University professor is among a group of leading scientists honored as 2019 Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as recognition for their invaluable lifetime contributions to science and technology.
University Professor Emeritus Claudio Cioffi-Revilla, formerly professor of computational social science in the Department of Computational and Data Sciences in the College of Science, and the founding director of Mason’s Center for Social Complexity, was among the more than 400 honorees selected.
Cioffi was honored for “distinguished research and service toward creating the field of Computational Social Science and its relationship to policy issues of international relations and social complexity,” according to AAAS.
Fellows are elected each year by their peers serving on the Council of AAAS, the organization’s member-run governing body. The complete list of 2019 Fellows was published in the Nov. 29 issue of the journal Science. The awards ceremony will be held in Seattle on Feb. 15, 2020, during the AAAS annual meeting.
“I want to use [the honor] as an opportunity to make a case for the field of disaster science,” Cioffi said, adding that he looks forward to sharing the news former collaborators and colleagues.
The 443 newly elected Fellows represent each of AAAS’s 24 sections, ranging from neuroscience and psychology to social, economic and political sciences. The honor recognizes diverse accomplishments, including pioneering research, leadership within a given field, teaching and mentoring, fostering collaborations and advancing public understanding of science.
He founded and initially chaired the Department of Computational Social Science and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed publications, including eight books, and his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Cioffi earned two doctorates in mathematical social science from the University of Florence (1975), Italy, and from the University of Buffalo (1979). He currently serves as chair of the Humanitarian Assistance Committee of the Order of Malta, Federal Association USA, which focuses on disasters.
The tradition of electing AAAS Fellows for their extraordinary achievements from across all disciplines began in 1874. Previous recipients have included astronomer Maria Mitchell (1875), inventor Thomas Edison (1878), anthropologist Margaret Mead (1934), computer scientist Grace Hopper (1963) and popular science author Jared Diamond (2000).
Two of the 2019 Nobel laureates announced last month, James Peebles and John B. Goodenough, are AAAS Fellows.
To be considered for the rank of Fellow, an AAAS member must be nominated by three previously elected Fellows, the steering group of an AAAS section or the organization’s CEO.
Founded in 1848, the AAAS bills itself as “the world’s largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its Science family of journals.” The organization lists individual members in more than 91 countries around the globe.