Science and Society Director Brooke Smith named 2024 AAAS Fellow
Brooke Smith, Director of Science and Society at The Kavli Foundation, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This lifetime honor recognizes her career-long commitment to strengthening relationships between science and the public.
A leading scientific society, AAAS first elected fellows in 1874. Selection is one of the highest distinctions in the scientific community. Smith joins 471 scientists, engineers, and innovators in 2024’s class of AAAS Fellows. This year’s class will be celebrated at a forum in Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2025.
AAAS Fellows are selected for excellence in many arenas, including research disciplines, teaching, and science engagement. Notable AAAS fellows include groundbreaking astronomer Maria Mitchell, inventor Thomas Edison, and actor and science communication advocate Alan Alda.
Smith is passionate about empowering scientists to discuss their work with interested and impacted communities. That work includes supporting professionals who enable effective engagement with science, and enabling multidisciplinary collaborations among researchers, social scientists, civic engagement experts and more. She also champions meaningful ways for science to consider societal implications of research, driven by her belief that when scientists engage with communities and consider the broader contexts of research, it builds public trust in and connection to the scientific enterprise.
The Kavli Foundation’s mission is to advance science for the benefit of humanity. In addition to funding basic science in the areas of astrophysics, neuroscience, nanoscience, and theoretical physics, the foundation has a commitment to strengthening science’s relationship with the public. Smith directs the portfolios of work in this “Science and Society” department, including leading some transformative endeavors. These include the Ethics, Science, and the Public initiative, which funds work to engage society in ethical issues born from discovery science, and the Science Public Engagement Partnership (SciPEP) with the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, which is an effort to deepen our understanding of effective public engagement around basic research. Smith also oversees funding focused on engagement efforts with The Kavli Foundation’s scientific partners, as well as science policy projects. Furthermore, she is part of the leadership of a broader collaborative of philanthropic funders interested in the role of science in society, as well as a participant of the Civic Science Fellows program.
“Being named a AAAS Fellow is an extraordinary honor. I am grateful for AAAS’ leadership in recognizing that excellence in science includes not only doing research but also considering the societal context in which research is situated, as well as building channels to share and converse about science with interested and relevant publics,” says Smith.
Prior to joining The Kavli Foundation in 2018, Smith served as the inaugural executive director of COMPASS, a nonprofit that empowers scientists to communicate effectively and to engage in public discourse about the environment. She has worked with and for the federal government, as a university-based communication professional, and as a consultant to foundations and nonprofits.
“Brooke Smith has demonstrated incredible leadership by developing innovative programs in science and society. Her recent contributions to public engagement about basic science and to considering ethical implications of research are highly impactful and I am pleased that AAAS is honoring her work. We are honored at The Kavli Foundation to have such an accomplished leader on our team and thrilled that she has been selected as a AAAS Fellow”, says Cynthia Friend, president and CEO of The Kavli Foundation.