U-M leads nation with 19 AAAS fellows

November 29, 2012
Contact:

ANN ARBOR—U-M led the nation with 19 scientists and engineers elected 2012 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The University of Michigan researchers were among 702 newly elected fellows announced Nov. 29 by AAAS.

The new fellows are being honored for their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

University of Michigan’s 2012 AAAS Fellows are:

James Bardwell, the Rowena G. Matthews Collegiate Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and a professor biological chemistry at the Medical School. He is honored for incisive studies on disulfide-mediated folding of secretory proteins, particularly the DsbA/DsbB bacterial pathway for disulfide oxidation that uses oxygen as the terminal acceptor.

Jason Gestwicki, the William B. Pratt Collegiate Professor in the Life Sciences, a research associate professor at the Life Sciences Institute and associate professor in the departments of pathology and biological chemistry at the Medical School. Gestwicki is honored for the development of chemical methods and probes for the study of protein-protein interactions, which has revealed structure-function relationships in multi-protein complexes.

Theodore Goodson III, the Richard Barry Bernstein Collegiate Professor of Chemistry, LSA, and a professor of macromolecular science and engineering at the College of Engineering. He is honored for fundamental studies of the linear and non-linear optical properties of nanostructured organic macromolecular and inorganic metallic cluster materials.

Deborah L. Gumucio, professor of cell and developmental biology at the Medical School. Gumucio is honored for scholarly contributions to our understanding of early gut development, and for establishing the Center for Organogenesis as the first and foremost translationally focused organization.

Paul Hollenberg, the Maurice H. Seevers Collegiate Professor of Pharmacology and chair of the Department of Pharmacology at the Medical School. He is honored for outstanding contributions to research on the relationships between the structure and catalytic function of cytochrome P450s and their role in drug metabolism and drug-drug interactions.

Aaron King, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and associate professor of mathematics, LSA. King is honored for distinguished contributions to the fields of computational and statistical biology, particularly as applied to understanding the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases.

David Kohn, professor of dentistry at the School of Dentistry and professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering. He is honored for distinguished contributions to the fields of biomaterials and biomechanics, with particular emphasis on the restoration of mineralized tissues and characterization of their mechanical function.

Benjamin Kuipers, professor of computer science and engineering at the College of Engineering. Kuipers is honored for distinguished contributions to artificial intelligence and robotics, particularly on the representation and effective use of incomplete knowledge of space and of dynamic physical mechanisms.

Jianming Li, professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and academic program director of the UM-PKU Joint Institute, LSA. He is honored for distinguished contributions to plant physiology, particularly for genetic dissection of plant steroid responses.

Ormond MacDougald, the John A. Faulkner Collegiate Professor of Physiology, a professor of molecular and integrative physiology and a professor of internal medicine at the Medical School. MacDougald is honored for distinguished contributions to the field of adipocyte development and metabolism, and graduate education in physiology.

Richard Miller, professor of pathology at the Medical School and research professor at the Institute of Gerontology. He is honored for investigations of how cellular stress resistance modulates the aging process, and studies of diets, genes, and drugs that extend lifespan in mice.

Harry Mobley, the Frederick G. Novy Collegiate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Medical School. Mobley is honored for distinguished contributions to the field of microbial pathogenesis of human infections, particularly for bacteria causing peptic ulceration and urinary tract infection.

John Moran, the Gilbert S. Omenn Collegiate Professor of Human Genetics and a professor of internal medicine at the Medical School. He is honored for seminal contributions to understanding the molecular genetics of mobile repetitive elements and their role in shaping the human genome.

Jacques E. Nör, the Donald A. Kerr Collegiate Professor of Dentistry at the School of Dentistry, professor of biomedical engineering at the College of Engineering and professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the Medical School. He is honored for pioneering research in the fields of vascular biology as it pertains to tumor neovasularization and therapy, and stem cell biology in dental pulp regeneration.

Eran Pichersky, the Michael M. Martin Collegiate Professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology in LSA. Pichersky is honored for distinguished contributions to the field of plant biochemistry, particularly to the biosynthesis and evolutionary biology of terpenes and other plant volatiles and flavor components.

David Smith, the John G. Wagner Collegiate Professor of Pharmacy, professor of pharmaceutical sciences, chair of the College of Pharmacy. He is honored for distinguished contributions to the pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences, particularly in regard to the molecular biology, physiology, and pharmacology of proton-coupled oligopeptide transporters.

Yi Sun, professor of radiation oncology at the Medical School. Sun is honored for distinguished contributions to the field of protein ubiquitination/degradation, particularly for validating Cullin-RING E3 ligases as promising anticancer and radiosensitizing targets for effective cancer therapy.

Naisyin Wang, professor of statistics, LSA, and professor of biostatistics at the School of Public Health. Honored for distinguished contributions to biostatistical theory and practice, the analysis of transformation models, imputation estimators, covariance estimation, and Bayesian approaches to differential gene expression.

John Wolfe, associate chair and professor of chemistry, LSA. Wolfe is honored for new palladium-catalyzed C-N, C-O, and C-C bond-forming reactions for the synthesis of heterocycles and natural products.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by steering groups of the association’s 24 sections, by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members, or by the AAAS chief executive office. The organization’s policymaking council votes on the final list.

Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. American Association for the Advancement of Science: http://www.aaas.org.