Earth & Space
Two UC Santa Cruz faculty members named 2025 AAAS fellows
Katharyne Mitchell and Adina Paytan were awarded the lifetime honor.
Two scholars at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. They are Katharyne Mitchell, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and former Dean of the Social Sciences division, and Adina Paytan, Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences,
Mitchell and Paytan are among 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators awarded today with the lifetime honor.
Katharyne Mitchell
AAAS recognized Mitchell for “distinguished contributions to the field of transdisciplinary community-engaged scholarship as a researcher and administrator, particularly for migration, urban space, transnationalism, and youth civic engagement.”
Mitchell’s current research is focused on the deep histories, infrastructures, and afterlives of spaces of containment, including forced labor camps, asylum holding centers, and deportation facilities. In recent work she explored the role of faith-based organizations in providing sanctuary to asylum seekers in Germany. Long-term themes of her scholarship include transnationalism, migrants and city-making, and urban restructuring.
As dean, Mitchell supported faculty and students through the establishment of a social sciences hub, the Institute for Social Transformation, and the campus’s Global and Community Health program, created in collaboration with then-Dean of the Science division Paul Koch. She established the Building Belonging program and raised funding for paid research opportunities for undergraduate students to work with faculty mentors; she also initiated the Transforming Futures scholarship program that enables low income students to take advantage of summer internships.
Mitchell was a faculty member in the Department of Geography at the University of Washington before joining UC Santa Cruz as social sciences dean in 2017. Major awards in her career include those from the Guggenheim Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Brocher Foundation, and a senior research award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In spring 2026, she will join international scholars as a research fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and in 2026-2027 at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Mitchell received her Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley, and her BA from Princeton University.
Adina Paytan
AAAS recognized Paytan for “distinguished contributions to earth and environmental science, through transformative research on ocean geochemistry, nutrient cycling, and climate change.” With affiliations at UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of Marine Sciences and Ocean Sciences Department, Paytan’s lab is dedicated to exploring the intricate web of interactions between living organisms and the chemical elements that shape our planet at present and over geological time.
At UC Santa Cruz since 2007, Paytan is widely recognized for her research on the human impacts on marine and freshwater ecosystems. She has also played a key role in efforts to restore wetlands and understand their role in climate resilience.
In addition, Paytan has been honored for her involvement in STEM education and public outreach to provide professional development opportunities to students of all ages and expand science literacy. Paytan is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Association of the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), Geochemical Society, and European Association of Geochemistry. She received the Vernadsky Medal, EGU for Exceptional Contributions to Biogeosciences and the A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in the Marine Sciences.
Paytan earned a M.S in Earth Science from the Hebrew University, Israel, a M.S. in Science Education from the Weizmann Institute, Israel and a Ph.D. at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
“This year’s AAAS Fellows have demonstrated research excellence, made notable contributions to advance science, and delivered important services to their communities,” said Sudip S. Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. ”These Fellows and their accomplishments validate the importance of investing in science and technology for the benefit of all.”
The new fellows will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C. on May 29, 2026.