Dr. Mary Dickinson named a 2023 Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Dr. Mary Dickinson, senior vice president and dean of research at Baylor College of Medicine, has been named a 2023 Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This honor comes as AAAS celebrates its 150th anniversary of the Fellows program. 

Election as a Fellow by the AAAS Council honors members whose efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications in service to society have distinguished them among their peers and colleagues. Being named a Fellow is a lifetime honor within the scientific community.

Dickinson is being recognized for her “contributions to the field of animal development, imaging and genetics in the global effort to determine the function of every gene in mice.” 

She has held her current role as senior vice president and dean of research since 2019. Under her leadership, the Office of Research has grown and expanded clinical research space, increased funding support and strengthened collaborative ties internally and with affiliate institutions. 

She also is a professor and the Kyle and Josephine Morrow Endowed Chair in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and professor in the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics and in the Department of Medicine at Baylor. She has held many leadership positions, including academic director of the Optical Imaging and Vital Microscopy Core, inaugural chair of the Faculty Senate and associate dean for research prior to her current role. She is a member of Baylor’s Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Cardiovascular Research Institute.

Dickinson first joined Baylor in 2005. Her work focused on the use of mouse models to pattern human diseases. Currently her lab focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying congenital birth defects and the genetic basis for disease.

Dickinson received a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University, a Ph.D. from Columbia University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at California Institute of Technology before being recruited to Baylor. 

She is among 502 scientists, engineers and innovators who were honored by AAAS this year. The new class hails from academic institutions, laboratories and observatories, hospitals and medical research centers, museums, corporations, nonprofit organizations, institutes and government agencies. 

Previously elected AAAS Fellows from Baylor College of Medicine include Drs. C. Thomas Caskey (1990), Bert O’Malley (1995), James Lupski (1996), Janet Butel (1998),  Mary K. Estes (1999), Susan Rosenberg (2010), Margaret “Peggy” Goodell (2014), Brendan Lee (2014), Theodore Wensel (2014), David Nelson (2014), Michael A. Grusak (2015), Jeffrey Rosen (2015), Philip J. Hastings (2017), Jeffrey L. Noebels (2017), Nancy Moreno (2018), Meng Wang (2019), Olivier Lichtarge (2019), Christophe Herman (2022), Yong Li (2022) and Lynn Zechiedrich (2022).