Five CUNY Graduate Center faculty members have been named 2025 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, placing their work among this year’s notable contributions to biology, physics, mathematics and environmental science.

Diversification and specialization are central to complex adaptive systems, yet overarching principles across domains remain elusive. Vicky Chuqiao Yang, assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and James Holehouse, a mathematical biologist with the Santa Fe Institute led a research project that has  introduced a general theory that unifies diversity and specialization across disparate systems, including microbes, federal agencies, companies, universities, and cities, characterized by two key parameters. The research team show from extensive data that function diversity scales with system size as a sublinear power law-resembling Heaps’ law-in all but cities, where it is logarithmic. Their theory explains both behaviors and suggests that function creation depends on system goals and structure: federal agencies tend to ensure functional coverage; cities slow new function growth as old ones expand; and cells occupy an intermediate position. Once functions are introduced, their growth follows a remarkably universal pattern across all systems.

A multiyear NSF study by FAU, the Brookings Institution, Texas State University, and four Robert Noyce partner institutions examined STEM teacher preparation and retention in high-need U.S. schools. Using national data, program surveys, and stakeholder interviews, findings show that Noyce-supported programs help maintain a stable, well-qualified STEM workforce, boost teacher readiness, and reduce vacancies near partner institutions. While some gaps remain, targeted policies and programs are critical for sustaining a resilient STEM teacher pipeline and expanding equitable student access to high-quality STEM education.

When it comes to error sensitivity, quantum computers are huge divas. Virginia Tech physicists devised a technique that draws on hidden quantum geometry to simplify the problem.

A team of researchers led by the University of Pittsburgh demonstrated a programmable superconducting diode at the LaAlO3/KTaO3 (LAO/KTO) interface as the result of usiung conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) lithography.