6 from MIT named AAAS fellows
This year 503 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, Feb. 19, from 8-10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
This year’s AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Jan. 11.
As part of the “AAAS News & Notes” section:
William Boone Bonvillian was elected as an AAAS Fellow for demonstrated commitment and skill at bringing the voice of science to the halls of Congress and the highest levels of government.
Edward F. DeLong was elected as an AAAS Fellow for his important contributions to microbial systems science, particularly to the study of bacterial and archaean genomics and oceanographic biomes.
Chris A. Kaiser was elected as an AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of yeast genetics, specifically protein sorting and secretion.
Terry L. Orr-Weaver of the Department of Biology and the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research.
David Pesetsky was elected as an AAAS Fellow for his innovative and critical research on syntactic theory, connecting it to issues in phonology, morphology, reading, language acquisition and neuroscience, and for his contributions to linguistic education at many levels.
Li-Huei Tsai was elected as an AAAS Fellow for studies of cellular mechanisms of learning and of learning disruptions in Alzheimer's disease.
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 (so 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.
MIT, a co-educational privately endowed research university, is dedicated to advancing knowledge and educating students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship to serve the nation and world. The Institute has more than 900 faculty and 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students.
MIT's commitment to innovation has led to a host of scientific breakthroughs and technological advances. Achievements include the first chemical synthesis of penicillin and vitamin A, the development of inertial guidance systems, modern technologies for artificial limbs, and the magnetic core memory that led to the development of digital computers. Sixty-three alumni, faculty, researchers and staff have won the Nobel Prizes.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journals Science, Science Translational Medicine and Science Signaling. AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes 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 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 website, a service of AAAS.