Baylor Anthropology scientist Julie Hoggarth, Ph.D., named AAAS Fellow

(Press-News.org) Noted Maya archaeologist Julie Hoggarth, Ph.D., associate professor of anthropology at Baylor University, has been elected to the rank of AAAS Fellow, a lifetime honor announced today by the Council 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.

Hoggarth is among the 471 scientists, engineers and innovators who have been elected 2024 Fellows for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements throughout their careers. The new Fellow class hails from academic institutions, laboratories and observatories, hospitals and medical centers, museums, global corporations, nonprofit organizations, institutes and government agencies.

“This year’s class of Fellows are the embodiment of scientific excellence and service to our communities,” said Sudip S. Parikh, Ph.D., AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “At a time when the future of the scientific enterprise in the U.S. and around the world is uncertain, their work demonstrates the value of sustained investment in science and engineering.”

This year’s AAAS Fellows class has moved their fields forward, paving the way for scientific advances that benefit society, bringing diverse and novelty thinking, innovative approaches and passion that will help solve the world’s most complex problems. As a 2024 AAAS Fellow, Hoggarth has been recognized for her “major research contributions that improved our understanding of the linkages among ancient demography, climate, environmental change, precise chronology and Maya history through meticulous archaeological research.” Hoggarth’s wide-ranging global research contributes to developing the long-term dynamics of climate change and the sociopolitical and demographic organization of ancient societies.

“This distinction means so much as a recognition of not only my own research but also the countless researchers, assistants, students, excavators and local communities that I work with and in which our archaeological research is based. Archaeology tends to be a collaborative effort, and I could not have accomplished the years of research, numerous publications and other professional achievements without the mentorship, friendship and collaboration of these individuals,” Hoggarth said. “I’m deeply grateful for these professional relationships and hope to offer the same support that the research community has given to me.”

Hoggarth is a Maya archaeologist specializing in the long-term dynamics of climate change and the sociopolitical and demographic organization of ancient societies. Her fieldwork is focused in western Belize, where she co-directs the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance (BVAR) Project. Her research has concentrated on building archaeological and historic datasets to assess how populations responded to drought, including high-precision radiocarbon chronologies assessing abandonment and demographic decline, as well as historical information on food availability and demographic trends. Her current research is focused on the sustainability of the ancient Maya, particularly in understanding household and polity-level decision-making for climate resilience. 

Hoggarth’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, United Kingdom Research and Innovation, Wenner Gren Foundation, Archaeological Institute of America, National Endowment for the Humanities, Rust Family Foundation and Baylor University. She serves on the steering committee for the PAGES PEOPLE 3000 (PalEOclimate and the PeopLing of Earth) working group, which aims to integrate paleo-population, paleo-ecological and paleo-social records to investigate the co-evolutionary properties of socio-environmental systems.

“It is exciting that Dr. Hoggarth’s archaeological research on ancient Mayan societies in Central America is being recognized as a major scientific contribution by the AAAS,” said Lee Nordt, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Baylor.

The 2024 class joins the ranks of noted Fellows such as Alondra Nelson, the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, former deputy assistant to the President and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy; Mae Jemison, the first Black woman to go to space; Steven Chu, 1997 Nobel laureate in physics who served as the 12th U.S. Secretary of Energy; Ellen Ochoa, veteran astronaut and the Johnson Space Center’s first Hispanic and second female director in its history; Grace Hopper, pioneer in computer software development and programming language; and Vint Cerf, who co-designed the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet and received the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The new Fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) to commemorate their election and will be celebrated this summer at a forum in Washington, D.C. The 2024 Fellows class also will be featured in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science. 

ABOUT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

Baylor University is a private Christian University and a nationally ranked Research 1 institution. The University provides a vibrant campus community for more than 20,000 students by blending interdisciplinary research with an international reputation for educational excellence and a faculty commitment to teaching and scholarship. Chartered in 1845 by the Republic of Texas through the efforts of Baptist pioneers, Baylor is the oldest continually operating University in Texas. Located in Waco, Baylor welcomes students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries to study a broad range of degrees among its 12 nationally recognized academic divisions. Learn more about Baylor University at www.baylor.edu. 

ABOUT THE COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES AT BAYLOR UNIVERSITY 

The College of Arts & Sciences is Baylor University’s largest academic division, consisting of 25 academic departments in the sciences, humanities, fine arts and social sciences, as well as 11 academic centers and institutes. The more than 5,000 courses taught in the College span topics from art and theatre to religion, philosophy, sociology and the natural sciences. The College’s undergraduate Unified Core Curriculum, which routinely receives top grades in national assessments, emphasizes a liberal education characterized by critical thinking, communication, civic engagement and Christian commitment. Arts & Sciences faculty conduct research around the world, and research on the undergraduate and graduate level is prevalent throughout all disciplines. Visit the College of Arts & Sciences website. 

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science, as well as Science Translational Medicine; Science Signaling; a digital, open-access journal, Science Advances; Science Immunology; and Science Robotics. AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes more than 250 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The nonprofit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. For additional information about AAAS, visit www.aaas.org.

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