You are here
News Release
Friday, November 24, 2006
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.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): 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. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.
NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®