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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) recently elected Dr. Carol Christian, Hubble Space Telescope Outreach Project Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute, along with 470 other AAAS members as Fellows of the AAAS. Election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers for their efforts to advance science or its applications.

Dr. Christian was honored by the AAAS for exceptional leadership in bringing astronomy and astronomy images to the broader range of the public, notably the seeing impaired. She has held diverse positions at STScI, and has served as a Science and Technology Policy Advisor at the U.S. Department of State.

She has invented and teamed on a number of education and outreach programs and is currently the lead of 3D Astronomy, a project bringing Hubble telescope and Webb telescope data, as well as data from other sources to visually impaired individuals. This project is also aimed at stimulating student interest in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) and career opportunities in STEM fields. She's also co-investigator on the Career Exploration Lab (CEL) program that supports educators with tools to engage blind and visually impaired students and includes a summer camp experience. She received her PhD in Astrophysics from Boston University.

The newly elected Fellows will receive an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin. The recipients will be honored at the annual Fellows Forum in Washington, D.C. on June 7, 2025.

Past AAAS Fellows from STScI include Drs. Mario Livio, Massimo Stiavelli, Margaret Meixner, Kathryn Flanagan, Colin Norman, Nancy Levenson and David Soderblom.