NJIT announces top honor: Sunil Saigal elected AAAS Fellow

Sunil Saigal, PhD, dean of NJIT's Newark College of Engineering, has been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow. Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

This year 531 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Feb., 20, 2010, from 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

This year's AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Dec. 18, 2009. Saigal was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of computational solid mechanics, particularly for meshless analysis methods, sensitivity formulations, glass failure simulations, and mesh generation.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer.

Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.

Provided by New Jersey Institute of Technology