Nine Vanderbilt University faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this year.
They are among 391 fellows from around the country selected by their peers "because of their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished."
"It is a tremendous honor for our faculty to be nominated and elected by their peers as AAAS fellows, a group that includes the most esteemed scientists in their fields," said Susan Wente, Ph.D., provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. "These nine faculty members individually have made significant contributions to advancing our understanding through basic and applied research and also by serving as mentors to the next generation of scholars. Collectively, they contribute greatly to our One Vanderbilt community of discovery."
The new fellows will be recognized Feb. 18, 2017, at the AAAS annual meeting in Boston.
Vanderbilt now has 119 AAAS fellows among its current and emeritus faculty and staff. More than half of them -- 64 -- were elected during the past five years, reflecting remarkable momentum and growth of the institution's academic standing.
"I want to congratulate our faculty on this career distinction. Each has contributed significantly to Vanderbilt's reputation on the world stage while advancing scientific knowledge within their field. Beyond this acknowledgement are the lives positively impacted through their work, through important new discoveries in science, medicine and engineering," said Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., President and CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
The new fellows and their achievements are:
- Stephen Brandt, M.D., professor of Medicine, Cancer Biology and Cell and Developmental Biology, for distinguished contributions to the field of gene regulation in the context of hematopoiesis and hematological malignancy;
- Roger Colbran, Ph.D., professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, for distinguished contributions to the field of neuroscience, particularly for studies identifying key postsynaptic signaling mechanisms that underlie synaptic plasticity, learning and memory;
- Philippe Fauchet, Ph.D., professor of Electrical Engineering and dean of the School of Engineering, for extraordinary scientific and engineering research accomplishment in photonics, energy, and the semiconductor/biology interface, and for distinguished academic leadership;
- Jacek Hawiger, M.D., Ph.D., Louise B. McGavock Professor, Distinguished Professor of Medicine and professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, for distinguished contributions to the field of hematology and immunobiology, particularly for a fundamental mechanism of blood platelets aggregation and of nuclear transport in inflammation;
- Robert MacDonald, M.D., Ph.D., Margaret and John Warner Professor of Neurological Education, chair, Department of Neurology, and professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Pharmacology, for distinguished contributions to the field of epilepsy research, especially work on fundamental bases for antiepileptic drug mechanisms, genetic epilepsy pathophysiology and GABAA receptor biophysics;
- Craig Lindsley, Ph.D., William K. Warren Professor of Medicine, and professor of Pharmacology and Chemistry, for distinguished contributions to the fields of medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, translational neuroscience and oncology, with outstanding accomplishments in integrating basic science with drug discovery;
- Yu Shyr, Ph.D., Harold L. Moses Professor of Cancer Research, and professor of Biostatistics, Biomedical Informatics, Cancer Biology and Health Policy, for distinguished contributions in integrative methods development for biostatistics and bioinformatics and high impact applications of these methods for discovery in cancer biology;
- Wael El-Rifai, M.D., Ph.D., H. William Scott Jr., Professor of Surgery and professor of Cancer Biology, for distinguished contributions to the field of molecular and translational oncology, particularly pioneering work supporting recent clinical trials to treat gastrointestinal cancers; and
- Alissa Weaver, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Cancer Biology, Cell and Developmental Biology, and Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, for distinguished contributions to the field of cancer cell biology, particularly the role of the actin cytoskeleton and membrane trafficking machineries in promoting cancer invasion.