Professor of Economics Amos Golan has been named a 2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

The AAAS is the largest general scientific society. It publishes the prestigious journal Science, organizes scientific conferences and symposia, promotes public understanding of science, and advocates for evidence-based policies in areas including climate change, energy, and healthcare. AAAS’s mission is to promote cooperation among scientists, encourage scientific responsibility, and support science education. Each year, it chooses a cohort of fellows whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its application in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues.

“Being elected as an AAAS fellow is one of the top honors in the scientific community,” says Professor of Economics and Department Chair Kara Reynolds. “Professor Golan’s selection is an indication of his lifelong achievements and leadership in the field of info-metrics. The department is extremely proud of his work, which has enhanced the reputation of the department and the university.”

Distinguished Contributions 

Golan is one of just 14 Fellows chosen this year in the AAAS’s Social, Economic and Policy Sciences section for his “distinguished contributions to the development, application, and teaching of maximum entropy estimation and its broader methodological significance in economics and other disciplines.”

“It is a great honor,” Golan says. “I feel lucky to have worked (and still work) with so many colleagues across disciplines on such interesting topics. I am thankful to my generous colleagues who nominated me to be a Fellow of AAAS. I hope to continue to advance my research in the area of info-metrics and make new connections across the AAAS community.”

Golan’s main area of research is information, information processing and optimal decision rules based on efficient use of information (info-metrics). He directs the Info-Metrics Institute at AU, established in 2009 with the mission of promoting the interdisciplinary study of information, information processing, and decision rules based on efficient use of information. Under Golan’s leadership, the Institute fosters collaborations among researchers across the scientific spectrum.

Golan’s new book Foundations of Info-Metrics: Modeling, Inference, and Imperfect Information is available from Oxford University Press. Among other honors, Golan is an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute, an elected Member of the International Statistical Institute, a senior fellow at the Rimini Center for Economic Analysis, and a member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Global Working Group (HCEO)’s Inequality: Measurement, Interpretation, and Policy Network.