The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has announced their 2025 Fellows, including three scientists from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
AAAS awards this lifetime honor to scientists, engineers, and innovators for distinguished achievements that advance science or its applications. Fellows are selected through a nomination and review process. Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society. The 2025 fellows class includes 449 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines.
The Berkeley Lab honorees are:
Blake Simmons, Director of the Biological Systems and Engineering Division of the Biosciences Area and Chief Science & Technology Officer at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) was elected for “distinguished contributions to the field of microbiology and biotechnology, particularly for the discovery and characterization of novel microbial biomass active enzymes, enzyme engineering, and advanced biomass pretreatment methods.”
Simmons’ work and contributions span from bioenergy and biotechnology to biomanufacturing and nanotechnology. Research led by Simmons is focused on biomass deconstruction and conversion, enzyme engineering, tailoring advanced solvents for biomass pretreatment, abiotic-biotic interfaces, biofuels, renewable chemicals, and biomanufacturing technologies.
Simmons joined Berkeley Lab in 2016, having previously been a part of the senior management team at Sandia National Laboratories for 15 years. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Washington and Tulane University, and currently is an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Queensland in Australia. Simmons has authored 452 publications, one book, and 52 patents. He has been the recipient of multiple awards, including two Secretary of Energy Achievement Awards (2018 and 2021), election to the 2024 class of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), the College of Fellows for AIMBE and Sigma Xi, and the Tulane University Outstanding Young Alumnus in Science and Engineering Award. He is also the co-founder of three startups, Illium Technologies, CARIBOU Biofuels, and Erg Bio.
Abby Dernburg, a senior faculty scientist in the Biological Systems and Engineering Division, was elected for “distinguished contributions to the field of meiosis, particularly the mechanisms that govern chromosome architecture, dynamics, and genome integrity.”
Dernburg studies how DNA is organized within cells, and how this physical organization contributes to genome function. She focuses on the specialized cell division process of meiosis, which leads to the creation of reproductive cells like sperm, eggs, and pollen. Dernburg’s work uses animal models, genomic tools, and microscopy to investigate how chromosomes pair up during meiosis, and how “quality control” mechanisms prevent errors in this process or eliminate cells in which errors have occurred. When these protective mechanisms malfunction, reproductive cells with an incorrect number of chromosomes can result, which can lead to disorders such as Down Syndrome in humans.
Dernburg’s group also examines the process of meiotic recombination, in which genes are shuffled between chromosomes, resulting in greater genetic diversity in species that undergo sexual reproduction. Dernburg’s lab has recently begun studying how physical stress within the DNA fiber may affect meiosis, and how meiosis may help to fortify genomes against mutations and other damage over evolutionary time.
Dernburg received her B.A. in Biochemistry from UC Berkeley in 1987, earned a Ph.D. at UC San Francisco, then conducted postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Dernburg first joined the Lab in 2001 and is currently a professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley.
Felix Fischer, a faculty scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of the Energy Sciences Area, was elected for “distinguished contributions at the interface of physical organic chemistry and condensed matter physics, particularly toward the exploration of strongly correlated phases and nanographene lattices.”
Fischer leads a highly integrated, multidisciplinary program focusing on the rational design, deterministic assembly, and detailed investigation of the exotic physical phenomena emerging from quantum confinement effects in nanomaterials. Fischer’s work focuses on developing a suite of novel synthetic tools that offer atomically precise control over intrinsic geometric and parameters such as length, width, symmetry, and electronic structure to understand, fine-tune, and ultimately harness the exceptional properties of nanoscale materials. By engineering and harnessing emergent quantum phenomena, Fischer’s research has the potential to advance fields such as energy storage, electronics, and materials science.
Fischer earned a Ph.D. from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) in 2008, then conducted research as German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University, where he further developed his expertise at the interface of synthesis, materials science and condensed matter physics. Fischer joined Berkeley Lab in 2012 and is currently a professor of chemistry at UC Berkeley.
The new AAAS Fellows will be recognized at the 2026 Fellows Forum held in Washington, DC on May 29, 2026, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
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Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) is committed to groundbreaking research focused on discovery science and solutions for abundant and reliable energy supplies. The lab’s expertise spans materials, chemistry, physics, biology, earth and environmental science, mathematics, and computing. Researchers from around the world rely on the lab’s world-class scientific facilities for their own pioneering research. Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest problems are best addressed by teams, Berkeley Lab and its scientists have been recognized with 17 Nobel Prizes. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.
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