NASA Astrobiology Program

NAI Scientist Elected AAAS Fellow

By Keith Cowing
February 17, 2009

Please join NAI in congratulating Jim Elser of the new Arizona State University (ASU) Team on his election as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He and the other newly elected fellows will be recognized Feb. 14 at the Fellows forum, during the 2009 AAAS annual meeting in Chicago.

Becoming a Fellow is in recognition of efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. Within that general framework, each awardee is honored for contributions to a specific field.

Elser is cited by AAAS for “pioneering work in developing the theories of ecological and biological stoichiometry to integrate levels of biology from the genome to the biosphere and thereby improve our management of renewable resources.” Elser, a professor in the School of Life Sciences at ASU, has built a career asking questions about evolutionary biology and energy and material flows in ecosystems, traveling from Antarctica to alpine lakes of Norway and Colorado to the Mongolian grasslands of China, to find answers. Understanding the balance of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in systems forms the backbone of Elser’s worldview, known as “stoichiometric theory.” He has taught more than 10,000 students and his pioneering studies have shaped young minds and jumpstarted new research approaches, as well as provided insights into nutrient limitation, trophic dynamics, and biogeochemical cycling, evolution and integrated levels of organization from molecules to cells to ecosystems.

[Source: NAI Newsletter]

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻