Rama Venkatasubramanian, Diane Wagener Named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. -  Rama Venkatasubramanian, Ph.D., and Diane Wagener, Ph.D., of RTI International were named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 

Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. 

"We are proud of Rama and Diane for this significant achievement," said Wayne Holden, Ph.D., RTI president and CEO. "They are both pioneers in their fields and have made many significant contributions to the scientific community. Their research is achieving our mission to improve the human condition."

Venkatasubramanian was honored for pioneering, seminal and sustained contributions in nanoscale thermoelectric materials and devices for thermal management and energy harvesting.  

These revolutionary developments will impact technical fields as diverse as the production of electrical power from waste heat to the thermal management of high-performance electronics, lasers and biological systems.

Venkatasubramanian's work in atomically engineered superlattice materials resulted in the most significant thermoelectrics breakthrough in 40 years. That breakthrough, reported in Nature (2001), has led to hundreds of laboratories around the world working on other nanoscale thermoelectric materials, and has shown that very large heat levels can be managed in electronics, as reported in Nature Nanotechnology (2009). Under his leadership, the RTI thermoelectrics program has won several awards, including R&D 100 Awards in 2002 for superlattice materials and in 2010 for electronics thermal management. 

Venkatasubramanian is the founder of Nextreme Thermal Solutions, which is commercializing thin-film thermoelectric technology developed at RTI with the support of the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA). Venkatasubramanian is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and serves as an editor of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

Wagener received the distinction for her pioneering studies in type 1 diabetes and health disparities, and administrative leadership in Healthy People initiatives in the United States and internationally.  

Wagener has more than 35 years of experience in academic and governmental institutions with expertise in designing and conducting epidemiologic studies and population-based surveys, and analyzing data from a broad range of national data systems.

In 2000, Wagener received both the Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service from the United States Department of Health and Human Services for the development of the Healthy People program and the Surgeon General’s Award recognizing her similar work in Egypt. She has published numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles, and has delivered presentations on genomics to audiences worldwide.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science as well as Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. 

 

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