Ten Penn Professors Named AAAS Fellows for 2016

Ten professors from the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among a class of 391 members honored for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Election as a Fellow of AAAS, the world’s largest scientific society, is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

The new AAAS Fellows from Penn are:

Rajeev Alur, Zisman Family Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Computer and Information Science, for fundamental contributions to logics, models and analysis techniques for real-time and hybrid systems.

Peter F. Davies, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, for seminal discoveries in the role of mechanical forces in atherogenesis and for distinguished contributions in vascular biology and vascular pathology in general. 

Ruben C. Gur, professor of psychology in Penn Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, for groundbreaking contributions using neuroimaging as an experimental probe to document sex differences, aging effects and abnormalities in brain function in a variety of disorders.

Jon Martin Lindstrom, Trustee Professor in Neuroscience in Penn Medicine’s Department of Neuroscience, for distinguished contributions to the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors field, particularly for discovering that receptor autoimmune response causes myasthenia gravis and for elucidating pathology and possible therapies.

Michael S. Marks, professor of physiology and pathology and laboratory medicine in Penn Medicine’s Department of Physiology and at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, for dissection of mechanisms by which melanosomes and other lysosome-related organelles form within cells and their implications for general endolysosomal maturation.

Mary C. Mullins, a professor of cell and developmental biology in Penn Medicine’s Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, for distinguished contributions in cell and developmental biology, particularly for pioneering zebrafish as a model genetic system to study signaling and polarity in vertebrate development.

Phillip Scott, a professor of microbiology and immunology in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Pathobiology and vice dean for research and academic resources, for distinguished contributions to the field of microbiology, particularly for immunologic research that provides a foundation for developing new vaccines and immunotherapies for cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Amita Sehgal, John Herr Musser Professor in the Department of Neuroscience in Penn Medicine, for distinguished contributions to neuroscience and physiology, particularly in elucidating molecular mechanisms and cellular circuits underlying circadian rhythms and sleep.

Donald A. Tomalia, an adjunct professor in the School of Arts & SciencesDepartment of Chemistry, for pioneering contributions to nanotechnology and nanomedicine, particularly the discovery of new dendritic macromolecular architectures including dendrimers, poly(oxazolines) and a nanoperiodic concept for unifying nanoscience.

Arjun Yodh, James M. Skinner Professor of Science in Penn Arts & SciencesDepartment of Physics and Astronomy and director of the Laboratory for Research on the Structure of Matter, for seminal contributions to the field of experimental soft condensed matter physics, especially in optical measurements and applications in biophysics. 

Each new Fellow will be presented an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin on Feb. 18, at the 2017 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston.