Patricia Kroboth, Sandra Mitchell Are Fellows of American Association for Advancement of Science

Two professors have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in recognition of their contributions to their fields: Patricia Kroboth in the School of Pharmacy and Sandra Mitchell in the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed by the association’s members, who are internationally distinguished scientists, engineers, and innovators.

Patricia Kroboth, dean and Dr. Gordon J. Vanscoy Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Sandra Mitchell, professor and chair of the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, will be inducted during the AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 13, 2016. The two honorees are among 347 new members nationwide who will be recognized for their efforts to advance science or its applications.

Patricia Kroboth is being recognized for “distinguished contributions using pharmacodynamics to explain variability in response to drugs, and for excellence in administrative contributions as center director, department chair, and dean,” AAAS said.

Prior to becoming dean, she explored basic functions and clinical applications of modulation of the GABA receptor and the family of ligand drugs, the benzodiazepines. Kroboth was founding director of what became one of the country’s first Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist PhD Programs, which continues today. She served serially as chair of the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics and the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, before being named dean of the school in 2002.

Kroboth is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. In 2013, she was awarded the American College of Clinical Pharmacology Award for Mentoring in Clinical Pharmacology.

Kroboth received a BS in pharmacy from the University at Buffalo and an MS and PhD in pharmacy from the University of Pittsburgh.

Sandra Mitchell is being recognized for “distinguished contributions to the philosophy of science, particularly the philosophy of evolutionary theory and of the social sciences,” AAAS said.

Her research focuses on epistemological and metaphysical issues in the philosophy of science, including how complex behavior is explained scientifically and how multilevel, multicomponent complex systems may be best represented. 

Mitchell is the author of three books, including Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism (Cambridge University Press, 2003) and Unsimple Truths: Science, Complexity and Policy (University of Chicago Press, 2009). She was elected president of the Philosophy of Science Association, to serve from 2016-2018, and has served on the AAAS Annual Meeting Scientific Program Committee since 2012.

Mitchell received a BA in philosophy from Pitzer College; an MSc in logic, philosophy, and scientific method from the London School of Economics; and a PhD in history and philosophy of science from the University of Pittsburgh.

Mitchell has been a professor at Pitt since 2000 and has served as chair of the history and philosophy of science department since 2006. She taught in the Department of Philosophy at Ohio State University and in the Department of Philosophy and Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego.