AAAS and Yale University Announce 2006 Fellows

Four renowned faculty members at Yale University have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow, an honor bestowed upon American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) members by their peers.

AAAS honor members as Fellows in recognition of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The new Fellows will be inducted at the Fellows Forum on February 17, during the 2007 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

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, by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members not affiliated with the nominee’s institution, or by the AAAS Chief Executive Officer. After Steering Group review, the AAAS Council votes on the aggregate list.

Announcement of this year’s AAAS Fellows will be in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on November 24, 2006. The following Yale University faculty members were named:

John R. Carlson, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, was named a Fellow in the Section on Neuroscience for “outstanding contributions to the molecular neurobiology of olfaction, making elegant use of Drosophila to reveal the roles of odorant receptor proteins in smell.”

Arthur Horwich, professor of genetics and of pediatrics and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was named a Fellow in the Section on Biological Sciences for “outstanding contributions to our understanding of the role of chaperonins in mediating protein-folding, particularly for structural and functional studies of GroEL.”

Oswald J. Schmitz, the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, and Director of the Center for Biodiversity Conservation and Science, was named a Fellow in the Section on Biological Sciences for “distinguished fundamental contributions towards understanding the emergence and maintenance of ecosystem structure and functioning, and for relating ecosystem patterns to individual behaviors.”

Kurt W. Zilm, professor of chemistry and chemical engineering, was named a Fellow in the, Section on Chemistry for “pioneering accomplishments in applications of solid-state NMR spectroscopy to molecular structure and reaction mechanism determination, and for dedication to pre-college and undergraduate science education.”

The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. It was founded in 1848, and includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. 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 further information about the organization and selection of Fellows contact Lonnie Shekhtman at lshekhtm@aaas.org or (202) 326-6434.