March 2026 Awards and Accolades

Kenro Kusumi

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Kenro Kusumi has been elected to the 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The AAAS Fellow honor is a recognition of the societal impacts of their outstanding career contributions. Kusumi is honored for deploying genomics to explore the origins of spinal disease and the evolution of reptile adaptations, and for leadership in promoting increased access to STEM education.

Kusumi is the senior vice provost and dean of The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and a professor in the School of Life Sciences. He has served several roles throughout his ASU career, including director of the School of Life Sciences and dean of natural sciences in The College.

Kusumi is a genome biologist and uses research to help conserve and study the functional adaptations of reptiles. More than half of the living turtle species are threatened with extinction, and Kusumi has sequenced the genomes of the threatened Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii), Sonoran desert tortoise (G. morafkai) and Texas tortoise (G. berlandieri) as tools for conservation efforts.

The colorful anole lizards have been described as the “Darwin’s finches” of reptiles, and Kusumi has led genome-scale analyses of accelerated evolution associated with their functional adaptations. His group has also uncovered sets of genes that are critical in the ability of anole lizards to adapt and regenerate parts of their bodies.

Michael Erickson

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Michael Erickson earned first place in the Medicine and Public Health category at the AAAS conference in Phoenix. The award includes a $500 prize, a certificate and recognition in the April issue of Science.

His poster, “Investigating the Effects of Electric Field Charge Polarity on Aedes aegypti Mosquito Repellency,” examines nonchemical methods of mosquito control using electric fields.

Erickson’s research focuses on Aedes aegypti, a mosquito species capable of transmitting diseases such as dengue and Zika. As temperatures rise, the species is expanding its range, increasing public health risks in regions including Arizona. In the study, mosquitoes were attracted to carbon dioxide, which mimics human breath, but had to pass through an electric field to reach the source. Erickson tested whether positive or negative electric charges affected repellency. Repellency rates remained about 50% to 60%. However, researchers observed that some mosquitoes became temporarily stuck to negatively charged wires, suggesting potential applications for capturing and monitoring mosquito populations.

Erickson said he entered the competition to gain experience communicating research, making the first-place recognition unexpected.