9 UNC scientists elected AAAS Fellows

Nine scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest general scientific society.

The Carolina researchers are among 702 new fellows chosen for this honor, which is bestowed upon association members by their peers in recognition of their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

The list of fellows will appear in the Nov. 30 issue of Science.

With this announcement, Carolina now boasts 67 fellows among its faculty. The new honorees – drawn from the College of Arts and Sciences, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the School of Medicine – and their citations are:

Howard E. Aldrich, professor of sociology and adjunct professor of management, for pioneering the application of evolutionary analysis to the sociological study of organizations and entrepreneurship, focusing on ethnicity, gender, family embeddedness and social networks.

Charles W. Carter Jr., professor of biochemistry and biophysics, for distinguished experimental and theoretical contributions to the fields of structural molecular biology and the evolution of enzymes, and service to the American Crystallographic Association.

Robert J. Duronio, professor of biology and genetics, for distinguished contributions to the field of developmental genetics, particularly pertaining to cell cycle regulation, and for service in graduate education in the biomedical sciences.

Michel R. Gagné, Mary Ann Smith Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, for distinguished contributions at the interface of inorganic and organic chemistry, particularly for the development of selective catalysts and the study of complex receptors.

Alan M. Jones, professor of biology and pharmacology, for distinguished contributions to our understanding of signal transduction in plant cells, specifically cell proliferation and programmed cell death, and for service to the community.

Ann G. Matthysse, professor of biology, for distinguished contributions to the field of bacterial-plant interactions particularly that of Argobacterium tumefaciens with host plants and bacterial cellulose synthesis.

Lishan Su, professor of microbiology and immunology, for distinguished contributions to the field of HIV immune-pathogenesis, particularly for modeling persistent infection, immunopathogenesis and therapy by HIV and HCV in humanized mice.

Kevin M. Weeks, Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, for distinguished contributions to the development of technology predicting the structures of RNAs and for the application of this technology to problems of biological importance.

Yi Zhang, currently at Harvard University Medical School, for distinguished contributions to the field of epigenetics and chromatin, particularly for the identification and characterization of various classes of histone and DNA modifying enzymes. Zhang was nominated while a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC.

The association will present the new fellows with a pin and a certificate on Feb. 16, 2013, at its annual meeting in Boston.

Provided by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill