EAST LANSING, Mich. — Six Michigan State University researchers have earned national recognition by being named AAAS Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
In the last two years, 11 MSU faculty members have been named as AAAS Fellows. Since the honors are peer-driven, these prominent awards are worth celebrating, said Ian Gray, MSU’s vice president for research and graduate studies.
“These scientists have been making significant contributions to their disciplines for some time, so this recognition is well-deserved,” he said. “Researchers like these, who tirelessly and creatively provide the foundations for great advances in human knowledge, should be celebrated by their peers.”
The six winners are:
- Asgi Fazleabas, professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology
- William Hartmann, professor of physics and astronomy
- Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Rachel Carson Chair in Ecological Sustainability
- Katherine Osteryoung, professor of plant biology
- Bradley Sherrill, University Distinguished Professor of physics and astronomy
- Michael Thomashow, University Distinguished Professor of molecular genetics
Fazleabas, a leading authority in the fields of uterine biology, fertility and endometriosis, a debilitating gynecological medical condition, was honored by AAAS for his contributions to the study of the cell biology and endocrinology of implantation. Fazleabas also is director of MSU’s Center for Women’s Health Research, as well as director of the Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research at MSU.
Hartmann, physics professor, was honored for his work in psychoacoustics, which attempts to make the connection between the physical properties of sounds and the perception of sounds by human listeners. In particular, Hartmann studies the binaural system — the brain's ability to make use of the differences in sounds received by the two ears to localize sounds in space and to detect sounds in background noise. He and colleagues have discovered two of the three known binaural pitch illusions — images that can be heard with two ears but cannot be heard with either ear alone.
Liu was honored for his pioneering research that integrates ecology, various social sciences and policy to achieve environmental sustainability at local, national and global scales. He is a distinguished professor of fisheries and wildlife who holds the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and serves as director of the MSU Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. He is known around the world for his work on the relationship between human and natural systems and is the lead investigator of the International Network of Research on Coupled Human and Natural Systems funded by the National Science Foundation.
Osteryoung, professor of plant biology, earned her AAAS award by focusing on uncovering the full network of genes and proteins controlling chloroplast division in plants. By combining the powerful genetic and genomic resources of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana with the tools of biochemistry and cell biology, she and her group are working to identify the components of the chloroplast division machinery, define their functions within the division complex and discover how chloroplast division is regulated. The long-term goal of Osteryoung’s research is to develop a comprehensive model describing the biochemical and molecular processes that govern chloroplast division in plants.
Sherrill was honored for his contributions to novel advances in production and separation of rare, new isotopes that are not normally found on Earth, but rather exist in nature in only the most violent explosions of stars. Approximately 270 isotopes are found naturally. Many more isotopes, probably more than 7,000 in total, can be produced by particle accelerators or in nuclear reactors; but, only a fraction of these have been made so far. The award recognizes his leadership in this developing field.
Sherrill also is the chief scientist for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams which is being built on the MSU campus and is expected to be completed later this decade.
Thomashow was selected for his contributions to the field of plant biology, focusing on the identification of stress response pathways involved in freezing and drought tolerance. Stresses, including extremes in temperature and water deficit, are major factors that limit the geographical locations where food and potential bioenergy crops can be grown. Thomashow’s overarching research interest is to understand the molecular mechanisms that plants have evolved to tolerate abiotic stresses. His research led to the identification of the CBF response pathway, a stress pathway that is highly conserved in plants and has major roles in freezing and drought tolerance.
This year 503 AAAS members were named fellows on the basis of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The new fellows will be honored Feb. 19 during the association’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.
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AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science and other publications. Founded in 1848, AAAS includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The tradition of naming AAAS Fellows began in 1874.
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Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 150 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.