Robert J. Bodnar, University Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at Virginia Tech, has been named a Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Bodnar, of Blacksburg, was one of 449 individuals given this honor in 2006 among the organization’s membership of more than 10 million scientists worldwide.

Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. Bodnar was nominated for his distinguished contributions to the field of applied and experimental geochemistry, especially in the area of study of natural and synthetic fluid inclusions. Bodnar will be recognized along with the other newly named fellows at the AAAS annual meeting in San Francisco in February.

Bodnar’s peers rank him as the leading fluid-inclusion expert in the world. His research on the properties and roles of fluids in natural and synthetic materials is multi-disciplinary, and combines geology, geochemistry, physical chemistry, and planetary, materials, and environmental sciences. His advice is sought by government and private agencies nationally and around the world.

Bodnar came to Virginia Tech in 1985 and was named C.C. Garvin Professor of Geochemistry in 1997 and University Distinguished Professor in 1999. He has served as chair of the Department of Geosciences and has published more than 100 scientific papers and more than 300 abstracts of conference presentations. His grants total more than $4.5 million from NASA, NSF, DOE, Argonne National Laboratory, and many private corporations.

Bodnar received his bachelor’s degree from Pittsburgh, his master degree from the University of Arizona, and his doctorate from Pennsylvania State University.

AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org). AAAS was founded in 1848 and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million.

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