AAAS honors two Northwestern researchers as Lifetime Fellows

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AAAS honors two Northwestern researchers as Lifetime Fellows

Carole LaBonne and Matthew Goldrick will be honored May 29 in Washington, D.C.

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Molecular bioscientist Carole LaBonne and cognitive scientist Matthew Goldrick, both faculty at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, have been elected 2025 Fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world's largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals.

LaBonne and Goldrick are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers and innovators recognized in 2025 for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements and will be honored at the annual Fellows Forum, which will be held in Washington, D.C., on May 29.

"This year's AAAS Fellows have demonstrated research excellence, made notable contributions to advance science and delivered important services to their communities," said Sudip S. Parikh, AAAS chief executive officer and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. "These Fellows and their accomplishments validate the importance of investing in science and technology for the benefit of all."

Carole LaBonne

Carole LaBonne is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Molecular Biosciences at Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and served as chair of the department from 2017 to 2023. She was elected to AAAS "for distinguished contributions to the field of developmental biology, in particular the gene regulatory networks that control cell fate acquisition and development of the neural crest in vertebrates."

An expert in developmental and stem cell biology, LaBonne studies the molecular signals that determine what types of specialized cells form in the embryo. Her research group focuses on pluripotent embryonic stem cells as well as neural crest stems cells - a group of embryonic cells that give rise to diverse tissues throughout the vertebrate body plan, including much of the craniofacial skeleton and peripheral nervous system, as well as heart tissues and pigment cells.

Using a variety of research organisms, including Xenopus and lampreys, LaBonne's laboratory studies how acquisition of these stem cell populations helped drive the evolution of vertebrates, including humans.

By uncovering the genetic and molecular mechanisms that guide these cells, LaBonne's work provides insight into birth defects, cancer and regenerative medicine.

"I'm honored to receive this recognition. It comes at a time when the importance of science, and in particular basic science, has never been clearer, even as the conditions for doing it have become more difficult," LaBonne said.

LaBonne served as the president of the Society for Development Biology from 2024 to 2025 and has received numerous awards, including the Ann McClaren Memorial Award from the International Society for Differentiation, the General Motors Cancer Research Scholar Award, American Cancer Society Scholar Award and the March of Dimes Basil O'Connor Award.

Matthew Goldrick

Matthew Goldrick is a professor of linguistics and director of cognitive science program in Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He was elected to AAAS "for distinguished contributions to the field of language science, particularly in the areas of speech production, speech processing, and computational modeling of mechanisms underlying linguistic knowledge and function."

Goldrick studies the cognitive science of language to understand how humans speak and perceive speech in multiple languages. His current projects use artificial intelligence to analyze speech acoustics, enabling a richer understanding of humans' complex abilities and how they can break down in psychiatric conditions, such as major depressive disorder.

His research uses behavioral experiments, as well as formal models, to build theories of the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying linguistic knowledge and processing in mono- and multi-lingual speakers.

"It's an immense privilege to be recognized as part of this amazing group of scholars," Goldrick said. "I'm deeply grateful for the support of my collaborators and all of my colleagues in Northwestern's interdisciplinary community."

Northwestern affiliations also include the department of psychology, the Interdepartmental Neuroscience program (NUIN), the Institute for Innovations in Developmental Science and the Institute on Complex Systems.

Goldrick is the 2026 recipient of the Jeffrey L. Elman Prize for Scientific Achievement and Community Building from the Cognitive Science Society. He is a Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society, a co-founder of Reviewer Zero and a co-founder of Bilingualism Matters Chicago. He has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. In addition, he was honored with a Ver Steeg Faculty Award from Northwestern for excellence in graduate mentoring.

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