A new type of university is emerging, one that steps beyond the American research university model and is nimble and responsive, takes responsibility for what happens outside its walls and can scale up to meet the demands and challenges of modern society. Arizona State University President Michael Crow says they are part of the "fifth wave" of universities.

Nutritionists have been touting the health benefits of seafood for years. But the push to increase our consumption of seafood can put a strain on the seafood industry and create more waste. The research found points of waste reduction regarding sea life and fish, but the model also introduced other points of waste that didn't exist before, including plastic packaging. ASU researcher Lekelia Jenkins believes those points of waste need to be addressed but were small compared to how the model improved sustainability.

Scientific and public health experts have been raising the alarm for decades, imploring public officials to prepare for the inevitability of a viral pandemic. Infectious epidemics seemingly as benign as 'the flu' and as deadly as the Ebola virus provided ample warning, yet government officials seemed caught off guard and ill prepared for dealing with COVID-19. Three future-oriented researchers and policy experts map out an 'Epidemiological Blueprint for Understanding the Dynamics of a Pandemic.'

As governments try to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, many are turning to contact tracing, including apps that track your location and electronic check-in QR codes. But with that technology come questions of personal safety, privacy, trust, control and collective action. Katina Michael is an expert in public interest technology. She will share the challenges of deploying these types of services and ways to improve them.

A team of astronomers and astrophysicists based at 21 research institutions around the world will receive the 2020 Newcomb Cleveland Prize, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, for a discovery that improved our understanding of bright flashes of radio waves from distant galaxies.

Manu Platt, a biomedical engineer and associate professor at the joint department of biomedical engineering between Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, will receive the 2021 AAAS Mentor Award.

Gary S. May, chancellor of the University of California, Davis, will receive the 2021 Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian climate scientist specializing in the effects of climate change in the Amazon and a leader in science policy for a sustainable Amazon, will receive the 2021 AAAS Award for Science Diplomacy.

Anthony Fauci - director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, an expert on HIV and immunoregulation, and the de facto public face of a science-based recovery from COVID-19 - has been named the winner of the 2021 Philip Hauge Abelson Prize.

Annette S. Lee, an astrophysicist and artist, will receive the 2021 AAAS Early Career Award for Public Engagement in Science for her collaborative, culturally relevant and community-focused projects grounded in indigenous knowledge of the stars.