University Distinguished Professor Ann E. Austin was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). This elite annual honor, established in 1874, is considered one of the most distinctive accolades in the scientific community. AAAS Fellows are recognized for their significant contributions to advance science or its applications.
Austin is an internationally recognized scholar of higher, adult and lifelong education. Broadly, her work examines faculty careers and professional development, organizational change in higher education, teaching and learning in higher education and more.
“Ann has been a pillar not only of our college and university, but of the field,” said Emily Bouck, associate dean for research at the College of Education. “Her work and its contribution to the field of education broadly, and higher education more specifically, is impactful — a true testament to the land-grant mission of Michigan State University.”
Over her career, Austin has been awarded over $8.8 million in funding from agencies including the National Science Foundation in which she served in significant leadership roles. Her research stemming from these grants, and others, has been distributed widely by peer reviewed journals including Innovative Higher Education, Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Higher Education Policy, and Higher Education Research and Development.
Austin’s scholarly contributions also include books. Her most recent, “Transforming College Teaching Evaluation: A Framework for Advancing Educational Excellence” (Harvard Education Press, 2025), “asserts that teaching evaluation can be a significant pathway to more effective teaching and learning,” Austin said. Other publications include “Building Gender Equity: Institutional Strategies for Change” (Hopkins Education Press, 2020) and “Faculty Development in the Age of Evidence: Current Practices, Future Imperatives” (Routledge, 2016), among several others she co-authored or co-edited, and dozens of contributions to chapters in other books.
“I have loved the opportunities across my career to work with colleagues to do research that makes a difference in higher education and the broader world,” said Austin, who was named a University Distinguished Professor in 2019. “I’m especially grateful for the wonderful collaborations I have had with faculty members, researchers, graduate students, and post-docs, working together on projects to strengthen teaching and learning processes to support our full array of students and to improve the organizational context within which work in higher education is situated.”
Other accolades for Austin include Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and part of the inaugural class of Fellows of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Austin previously served as ASHE president and received a Research Achievement Award from the organization in 2019.
In addition to her scholarly work, she has served in leadership roles, as associate dean for research and then interim dean in the College of Education, and in various leadership positions in the Office of the Provost.
With this award, Austin joins several other current and emeriti faculty from the College of Education who are AAAS Fellows:
- Lappan-Phillips Professor of Science Education Melanie Cooper,
- Professor Emeritus James Fairweather,
- Dean Jerlando F. L. Jackson,
- Lappan-Phillips Professor Joseph Krajcik,
- John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor Barbara Schneider,
- Associate Professor Emeritus Mark Urban-Lurain.
Austin and other 2025 AAAS Fellows, including eight others from Michigan State University, will be formally honored in May 2026 at the annual AAAS Fellows Forum.