Two faculty members from the University of Pennsylvania have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Hyun (Michel) Koo, a professor in the department of orthodontics and divisions of pediatric dentistry and community oral health in Penn Dental Medicine, and Joshua Plotkin, a biology professor in the School of Arts and Sciences, are among a group of 416 honorees this year.

AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Fellowship is bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

As part of AAAS’s Dentistry and Oral Health Sciences Section, Dr. Koo was selected “for distinguished contributions to the field of cariology, particularly for improving understanding of relationships between biofilms and oral diseases and developing therapies against biofilm-
associated infections.”

As part of AAAS’s Biological Sciences Section, Dr. Plotkin was selected for “scientific accomplishments in evolutionary biology, ecology and related disciplines, for dedicated mentorship and for service to AAAS and the broader scientific community.” In addition to his position in the biology department, Dr. Plotkin has secondary appointments in the department of mathematics and in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s department of computer and information science.

This year’s AAAS Fellows will be honored at the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, on February 16, 2019.