The members of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) have chosen two University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers for the distinction of fellow.
Dr. Anindya Dutta, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, was cited by his peers for discovering how mis-regulation of the interactions between the cell cycle and replication initiation in mammalian cancer cells contributes to genomic instability.
William R. Pearson, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, was cited by his peers for significant contributions to bioinformatics, particularly for his efforts as co-developer of FASTA, a computer program for searching protein and DNA databases.
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. This year 471 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
“I am delighted by this honor and believe the honor belongs as much to the University of Virginia and the Mellon Prostate Cancer Research Institute. I would also like to thank my laboratory colleagues for their wonderful research and Drs. Joyce Hamlin and Mike Weber for their support,” said Dr. Dutta.
“I am honored to have been selected as a fellow of the AAAS. I greatly appreciate the freedom I had at UVa to pursue some rather unconventional research directions, which led to this award,” said Pearson.
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 AAAS 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.
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.
