Main Articles Listing: Awards 7. Three UA Scientists Selected as 2005 AAAS Fellows October 28, 2005 by University Communications The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has named three faculty members from The University of Arizona in Tucson as 2005 AAAS Fellows. Vicki L. Chandler, Richard A. Jorgensen and Michael W. Nachman are among 376 new fellows from across the nation. "These individuals have been elevated to this rank because of their efforts toward advancing science or applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished," according to AAAS. New fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin at the February 2006 AAAS annual meeting in St. Louis. This year’s fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 28 October 2005. Chandler, director of UA's BIO5 Institute and a UA Regents' Professor, is cited in the field of biological sciences "for major contributions to understanding the molecular basis of paramutation in plants." She holds the Carl E. and Patricia Weiler Endowed Chair for Excellence in Agriculture and Life Sciences at the UA where she is a professor of plant sciences. Chandler earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco in 1983 and joined the UA faculty in 1997. She studies plants as model systems to understand the mechanisms that regulate gene activity. Her research in the field of epigenetic control of gene activity has shown that Mendel's laws, discovered more than 150 years ago, do not account for all aspects of inheritance. Her discoveries could explain why certain human diseases are inherited in ways that have long puzzled researchers. Chandler has been a leader in the field of plant genetics, both in research accomplishment and as a role model to women scientists. Her work was recognized in 2002 by her election to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a U.S. scientist or engineer can achieve. She recently received the National Institutes of Health Director's Pioneer Award and has received numerous other honors and awards. In addition to her research and teaching, Chandler has served as president of professional societies and as a scientific spokeswoman before congressional committees. Jorgensen, an associate professor of plant sciences, discovered a basic genetic phenomenon known as RNA silencing. By adding additional flower color genes to petunia plants, he found that, rather than having darker colors, the genetically engineered flowers had less color. The unexpected result led to the finding that key messenger molecules known as RNAs interfered with, or silenced, the expression of the added color genes and any similar genes. AAAS is honoring him in the field of biological sciences "for the discovery of a fundamental genetic mechanism, cosuppression, now known as RNA silencing, which controls gene expression and chromosome structure in eukaryotes." Jorgensen earned his doctorate in biochemistry in 1978 from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and joined the UA faculty in 1998. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal The Plant Cell. Author of more than 50 scientific publications, he also holds five patents stemming from his scientific work. Michael W. Nachman, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, is cited in the field of biological sciences "for discoveries concerning selection at the molecular level in humans and mice and the genetics of adaptation and speciation in mammals." He earned his doctorate in biology from the University of Michigan in 1990 and joined the UA faculty in 1996. He received a UA College of Science Early Career Teaching Award and is a member of BIO5. He has served on numerous National Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health advisory panels and is an author of more than 50 scientific publications. Nachman's research focuses on understanding the forces that shape genetic variation in natural populations, the genetic basis of adaptation and the genetic basis for the origin of new species. Specific projects include efforts to find regions of the mouse and human genomes that show evidence of recent natural selection. In humans, some of these regions of the genome may contain genes that underlie genetic diseases. His research group also studies genes that underlie adaptations to specific environments, such as light and dark mice that match the color of soils on which they live. Founded in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS 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 one 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. N O T A E Contact Information Vicki Chandler 520-626-2632 chandler@ag.arizona.edu Richard Jorgensen Phone520-626-9216 raj@Ag.arizona.edu Michael Nachman 520-626-4595, 520-626-4747 nachman@u.arizona.edu - Updated: October 28, 2005 [e-Mail me the articles]    -     [Search our articles]    -     [contact us ]     return to media home