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Tuesday, April 7, 2026
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Professor Christina Sormani Elected AAAS Fellow
Christina Sormani with a group of her students.
April 7, 2026
Lehman College and Graduate Center mathematician Christina Sormani has been named a 2025 American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow—a rare distinction among scientists that recognizes efforts to advance their discipline in research, teaching, advocacy, and service. What’s more, of the 449 AAAS Fellows selected this year, only ten are mathematicians.
“I’m grateful to Lehman and CUNY for supporting my research and that of my students,” Sormani said. “It has been wonderful to have the opportunity to give back to the university that educated my parents and so many other first generation college students of diverse backgrounds.”
In its citation, AAAS noted Sormani’s “distinguished contributions to the field of geometric analysis and the development of new notions of convergence to measure geometric stability with applications to mathematical general relativity.”
The Association elects fellows annually, but it’s a lifetime distinction. Sormani joins Lehman colleague Eleanore Wurtzel, professor of biological sciences, and AAAS fellows across CUNY, including University provost Rosemary Wesson and Joshua Brumberg, president of the Graduate Center.
“Professor Sormani’s election as an AAAS Fellow is a significant and well-deserved honor,” said David Pantalone, dean of the School of Natural and Social Sciences (NSS). “Her pioneering work in geometric analysis and differential geometry—which advances our understanding of the structure of space—sets a standard for the kind of rigorous, high-impact scholarship we strive to cultivate within NSS. We are proud to count her as a colleague and fortunate that she so generously brings her insights and energy into the classroom for our Lehman students.”
Like most of those students, Sormani is a native New Yorker educated in the NYC public school system. She is also a child of CUNY alumni. Since she joined Lehman in 1999, she has won major grants from the National Science Foundation, both for original scientific research and a professional development program for Bronx high school math teachers taking master’s level courses at the College.
Members of her undergraduate research teams at Lehman have their own track record of success, pursuing doctoral degrees in mathematics and physics and pursuing careers in both industry and academia. Sormani’s distinction will help her open doors for even more students.
“Being an AAAS fellow enables me to speak on behalf of science at a national level,” she said. “I can advocate for the importance of science education and will have a stronger voice when writing letters of recommendation to support our students’ graduate level work and careers.”
This is not the first honor for Sormani. She was selected an American Mathematical Society Fellow in 2015 in recognition of her research and mentoring students. In 2024, she was selected as an Association for Women in Mathematics Fellow for her efforts to open the field to more women and making the accomplishments of women mathematicians more widely known.