UF College of Dentistry oral biology associate professor Luis Martinez, Ph.D., M.S., M.B.A., was recently recognized for his work with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, Leshner Leadership Institute for Public Engagement with Science, which is honoring Institute Fellows and their work as part of it’s five-year anniversary.
Martinez was a Leshner Leadership Institute Fellow in 2017-18, helping to carry out the Institute’s mission and commitment to public engagement with science. Now, he continues the important mission with UFCD, made all the more important through the COVID-19 pandemic and while scientists and researchers strive to address structural racism in scientific institutions and civic society.
The Leshner Leadership Institute empowers cohorts of scientists and engineers to lead high-impact public engagement and advocate for institutional changes to support public engagement by scientists.
Each cohort of AAAS Leshner Fellows focuses on an area of science with an important and timely relevance to society, including climate change, infectious disease, food and water security, human augmentation, and artificial intelligence. In its first 5 years, the Leshner Leadership Institute has trained and supported 67 fellows from 60 different institutions, including participants from 28 states and 6 countries.
As a Fellow, Martinez focused on infectious disease, and worked with AAAS to write an op-ed on science funding in the federal budget.
More about Martinez, Leshner Institute Fellows and the Institute’s mission moving forward can be found in its Faces of the Fellowship publication.