Four faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are among the 17 Texas A&M University faculty selected this month as 2025 Chancellor’s Enhancing Development and Generating Excellence in Scholarship (EDGES) Fellows.
Dr. Jessica Fitzsimmons from the Department of Oceanography, Dr. David Powers from the Department of Chemistry, and Dr. Jessica Bernard and Dr. Brian Anderson from the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, were selected for the honor, which underscores Texas A&M’s dedication to supporting, retaining and celebrating faculty with outstanding achievements and a strong potential for continued high-impact research and scholarship.
Established in 2019 by Chancellor John Sharp, the EDGES Fellowship program honors mid-career faculty who have gained significant national and international acclaim and are on a path toward the highest honors in their disciplines. Selected by the dean of their respective college, EDGES fellows receive vital funding support and retain the title of Chancellor EDGES fellow for as long as they remain faculty members in good standing with the university.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Before arriving at Texas A&M, Dr. Brian Anderson earned his Ph.D. in psychological and brain sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 2014, where he also completed postdoctoral research. Joining Texas A&M in 2016 as a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, he has since taken on departmental leadership roles, including director of the Human Imaging Facility.
Anderson actively serves on the department’s Tenure and Promotion Committee, the College of Arts and Sciences Research Advisory Council, and the Committee on Participant Recruitment for the Office of the Vice President of Research. In addition, he serves as the faculty lead for Aggie Research Volunteers, a new initiative to connect the Bryan/College Station community with research participation opportunities at Texas A&M.
Anderson’s research explores how past experiences influence attention, beyond personal goals or visual cues, providing insight into habits, addiction and automatic behaviors. At Texas A&M, he leads a lab focused on attentional control and how people can be trained to better ignore distractions. His team also develops practical applications, including those designed to improve workplace safety.
His research has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Charles Puryear Professorship in Liberal Arts (2024) and the Elsevier/Vision Sciences Society Early Career Award (2023). In 2023 Anderson was named a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science. He also received the Janet Taylor Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions (2022) and the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology (2021), among others.
Dr. Jessica Bernard received a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in cognition and cognitive neuroscience from the University of Michigan, completed in 2008 and 2012, respectively. She joined Texas A&M in 2015 as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
In addition to teaching, Bernard is deeply involved with the university, actively serving on the Department of Psychology Undergraduate Studies Committee. She previously served on the Texas A&M Council of Principal Investigators and has contributed to several search and review committees across the Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience and the Departments of Psychology and Kinesiology.
Bernard’s research focuses on the cerebellum’s role in both motor and cognitive behavior during a human lifespan. As director of the Lifespan Cognitive and Motor Neuroimaging Laboratory on campus, she investigates how this brain region contributes to higher-order cognitive functions. Additionally, she studies the cerebellum’s involvement in psychosis and its role in the development of psychotic disorders.
Bernard’s accomplishments in research and teaching have earned her several awards, including the LIFE Outstanding Alumni Award for contributions to developmental science (2020), the Dr. Robert M. Gates Inspiration Award (2019), and recognition as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (2017).
Department of Oceanography
Dr. Jessica Fitzsimmons is an associate professor in the Department of Oceanography who joined the Texas A&M faculty in 2015. She completed her Ph.D. in chemical oceanography through the joint program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 2013.
Fitzsimmons actively served on several departmental and university-wide committees, including the Council of Principal Investigators, the Diversity Committee for the (former) College of Geosciences, and the Qualifying Exam Committee for Chemical Oceanography. She co-directs the university’s Oceanography Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program and assists in managing the R. Ken Williams Radiogenic Isotope Facility.
Her research centers on the biogeochemical cycling of trace metals in the ocean, such as iron, copper and zinc, which are crucial to the global carbon cycle and climate regulation. As head of The Fitzsimmons Group, she leads ocean expeditions where students collect seawater samples and analyze them using advanced mass spectrometry at the Williams Radiogenic Laboratory at Texas A&M.
She is an internationally recognized expert in chemical oceanography who in 2021 earned the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Ocean Early Career Scientists Medal in Chemical Oceanography. Her accolades also include the Texas A&M College of Geosciences Dean’s Distinguished Award for Faculty Service (2020) and the National Academy of Sciences Gulf Research Program Early Career Fellowship (2019).
Department of Chemistry
Dr. David Powers is a professor and associate department head in the Department of Chemistry. He completed both a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. After receiving his Ph.D. in 2011, he worked as a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 2015 and was appointed associate department head in 2023.
Powers actively serves on several departmental committees, including the Promotion and Tenure Committee, Associate Head of Undergraduate Studies, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Academic Operations Committee, Graduate Program Committee, and the Student-Faculty Working Group.
Power's research focuses on chemical synthesis and solar energy storage. The Powers Research Laboratory, a student-based group, studies chemical reactions in synthetic organic and inorganic chemistry. Its projects explore cleaner ways to store solar energy and develop new methods for rebuilding molecules.
Since arriving at Texas A&M, Powers has earned several awards and honors, including the Texas A&M College of Arts and Sciences Research Impact Award (2023), The Association of Former Students College Level Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award (2022), and The Association of Former Students College Level Teaching Award (2021), among others.
Anderson, Bernard, Fitzsimmons and Powers are among 18 current or former Texas A&M Arts and Sciences Faculty honored to date as EDGES Fellows, joining Dr. Sheela Athreya (Anthropology), Dr. Sarah Brooks (Atmospheric Sciences), Dr. Gil Rosenthal and Dr. Joseph Sorg (Biology), Dr. Sarbajit Banerjee, Dr. Lei Fang and Dr. Wenshe Ray Liu (Chemistry), Dr. Sarah Zubairy (Economics), Dr. Wendy Jepson (Geography), Dr. Sonia Hernández (History), Dr. Kenny Easwaran (Philosophy), Dr. Rupak Mahapatra and Dr. Alexei Safonov (Physics and Astronomy) and Dr. Holly Foster (Sociology).
Learn more about Chancellor’s EDGES Fellowships or faculty excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences and read the 2025 news release.