Arthur “Skip” Lupia, vice president for research and innovation, has been appointed the Strategic Council for Research Excellence, Integrity, and Trust’s third co-chair. Lupia assumes the role after the departure of France Córdova, who served as co-chair and a member for four years. Lupia has been involved with the Strategic Council since its founding in 2021. He is the lead author of the 2024 PNAS piece on “Trends in US public confidence in science and opportunities for progress” and championed the August 2025 memo on “A Response to OSTP Agency Guidance for Implementing Gold Standard Science in the Conduct & Management of Scientific Activities.” The Strategic Council is a standing committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine and serves as a venue for multiple stakeholders to advance collectively the integrity, ethics, resilience, and effectiveness of the research enterprise while at the same time preparing it for tomorrow’s challenges. Read more.

Luke Shaefer, the inaugural faculty director of Poverty Solutions at U-M, has been named chief executive of Health, Human Services, and Poverty Solutions for the city of Detroit as part of Mayor Mary Sheffield’s incoming administration. Shaefer is the Hermann and Amalie Kohn Professor of Social Justice and Social Policy and professor of public policy in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy; professor of social work in the School of Social Work; and faculty associate in the Survey Research Center and in the Population Studies Center in the Institute for Social Research. The new chief executive role is part of the city government’s reorganization plan aimed at improving quality of life and facing health inequities and homelessness head-on with revised strategies and approaches. Starting in February, Shaefer will oversee the Detroit Health Department, the Office of Immigrant Affairs and Economic Inclusion, and a new Department of Human, Homeless and Family Services directed by Benita R. Miller. Shaefer will take a two-year leave from U-M to take on this role with the city of Detroit, with plans to return to his faculty post. With Poverty Solutions, Shaefer has worked closely with the city of Detroit for years to set an economic mobility policy agenda for the city and leverage U-M’s expertise and resources to improve the well-being of Detroiters. Under Sheffield’s leadership, the city of Detroit will renew and expand the Detroit Partnership on Economic Mobility with U-M Poverty Solutions. Read more.

Kon-Well Wang, the A. Galip Ulsoy Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and the Stephen P. Timoshenko Collegiate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, has been elected to the Class of 2026 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellows. AIAA Fellows are individuals who have made notable and valuable contributions to the arts, sciences, or technology of aeronautics and astronautics. Wang was elected for contributions in advancing adaptive structures with significant impact on aerospace systems, and for academic and national leadership in promoting engineering education and convergent research. “I am greatly honored to be recognized by my peers and colleagues for this prestigious fellowship,” he said. “I am truly grateful for the intellectual exchanges we had and their kind support throughout the years.” AIAA is the world’s largest aerospace technical society, with more than 30,000 members representing 85 countries. Read more.

The Modern Language Association of America announced it is awarding its 56th annual James Russell Lowell Prize to Adela Pinch, professor emerita of English language and literature and women’s studies for her book “The Location of Experience: Victorian Women Writers, the Novel, and the Feeling of Living,” published by Fordham University Press. Two honorable mentions are being awarded, to Jonathan Elmer, professor of English at Indiana University, Bloomington, for “In Poe’s Wake: Travels in the Graphic and the Atmospheric,” published by the University of Chicago Press, and to Damion Searls, a freelance writer and translator based in Minneapolis, for “The Philosophy of Translation, published by Yale University Press.” The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding book — a literary or linguistic study, a critical edition of an important work, or a critical biography — written by a member of the association.

Gaurav G. Desai, Frederick G L Huetwell Professor and professor of English language and literature in LSA, was elected second vice president of the Modern Language Association. He will serve in that office through the close of the January 2027 convention and will automatically become first vice president in 2027, serving in that office through the close of the January 2028 convention. His term as president will begin after the close of the January 2028 convention and will continue through the close of the January 2029 convention. Kate Ostrom, lecturer I in romance languages and literature in LSA, was one of three elected to at-large seats on the Executive Council for four-year terms through the close of the Jan. 2030 convention.

Barry Rabe, the Arthur Thurnau Professor Emeritus of Environmental Policy and distinguished political science scholar, has won the 2025 American Political Science Association Science, Technology, and Environment Policy Section’s Elinor Ostrom Career Achievement Award. Named after renowned political scientist Elinor Ostrom, the annual award is granted to a scholar with lifelong contributions to the study of science, technology, and environmental politics. The Ostrom Career Achievement Award recognizes Rabe’s decades of work in environmental and energy policy. His books, including the nationally acclaimed “Statehouse and Greenhouse: The Emerging Politics of American Climate Policy,” published by Brookings Institution, focus on the political feasibility and durability of environmental and energy policy. In reference to his groundbreaking research, the APSA selection committee praised Rabe’s “rare ability to produce research that has both extraordinary intellectual merit and public policy relevance.” Rabe also researches political and policy issues in the context of federalism. His 2020 Brookings Institution Press co-authored book, “Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism,” examines the first Trump administration’s use of executive power in healthcare, climate change, and education policy. Rabe taught at U-M for 39 years, holding positions in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, LSA and the School for Environment and Sustainability. Read more.

At its annual meeting, the American Astronomical Society made several announcements involving U-M researchers. Mary Anne Limbach, assistant research scientist in astronomy in LSA, was named the 2026 winner of the Annie Jump Cannon Award. According to an AAS citation, Limbach was honored “for pioneering the detection of white dwarf exoplanets and exomoons, and for developing innovative observing methods that open new windows into the diversity, evolution, and habitability of planetary systems.” Additionally, Jon Miller and Michael Meyer were named AAS Fellows as part of a cohort of 23 new fellows. Meyer, chair of the Department of Astronomy and professor of astronomy, and of physics in LSA, was honored “for significant contributions to infrared instrumentation and the study of the evolution of young stars, planetary systems, and the boundary between gas giant planets and brown dwarfs; and for strong commitment to mentoring scientists at all levels.” Miller, Douglas Richstone Collegiate Professor of Astronomy in LSA, was honored “for outstanding contributions to the field of high energy astrophysics, including the study of black holes, accretion disks, and the central engines of active galactic nuclei; for leading many ground- and space-based X-ray missions; and for mentorship and numerous services to the astronomical community.” Miller was also selected as the vice chair of the AAS High Energy Division, which has about 1,500 astronomers in the country and is the home for ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy, as well as particle astrophysics and gravitational wave astrophysics.

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