Six NIH Researchers Named AAAS Fellows
Six researchers from the National Institutes of Health have been
awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow. Election as a Fellow is
an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
This year 449 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because
of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance
science or its applications. New Fellows will be presented with
an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science
and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February
17, 2007 from 8 to 10 a.m. at the Fellows Forum during the 2007
AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
This year’s AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes
section of the journal Science on 24 November 2006.
As part of the Section on Biological Sciences, Dr. Kyung J. (June)
Kwon-Chung of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases was elected as a AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions
to infectious disease research, discovery of the sexual cycles
of pathogenic fungi, and for transforming molecular, genetic, and
genomic breakthroughs.
Dr. Philip Anfinrud of the National Institute of Diabetes and
Digestive and Kidney Diseases was elected for distinguished contributions
to understanding the relationships between protein structure, dynamics,
and function using ultrafast time-resolved laser spectroscopy and
X-ray crystallography as part of the Section on Chemistry.
Three NIH researchers were elected as AAAS Fellows for outstanding
contributions under the Section on Medical Sciences. Dr. Martin
A. Cheever of the National Cancer Institute was elected for pioneering
the development of anti-cancer vaccines and the characterization
of tumor antigens and epitopes inducing T cell immunity to cancer.
Dr. Ronald N. Schwartz of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases was elected for pioneering the understanding
of T cell anergy and immune tolerance.
Dr. Thomas E. Wellems of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases was elected for major contributions to our
understanding of the malaria parasite, including identification
of the mechanisms of drug resistance, immune evasion and protection
by hemoglobin C.
As part of the Section on Statistics, Dr. Edward L. Korn of the
National Cancer Institute was elected a AAAS Fellow for methods
and leadership in the scientific review of clinical trials, and
for developing survey methods for epidemiology and the health sciences.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members
can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the Steering
Groups of the Association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows
who are current AAAS members (as long as two of the three sponsors
are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the AAAS
Chief Executive Officer.
Each Steering Group then reviews the nominations of individuals
within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to
the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.
The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired
by the AAAS President, and consisting of the members of the Board
of Directors, the Retiring Section Chairs, delegates from each
electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the
National Association of Academies of Science.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher
of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org).
AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies
and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science
has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general
science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership
of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org)
is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and
serve society” through initiatives in science policy; international
programs; science education; and more. For the latest research
news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org,
the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) — The Nation's
Medical Research Agency — includes 27 Institutes and
Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. It is the primary federal agency for conducting
and supporting basic, clinical and translational medical research,
and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and
its programs, visit www.nih.gov. |