Eight professors with San Diego ties were named fellows Monday by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the largest general science organization in the U.S. and publisher of the journal Science.
Almost 400 honorees were recognized as fellows by the nearly 170-year-old organization, including six from UC San Diego, one from Cal State San Marcos and one from the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.
Those named fellows from UCSD are:
— Michael Burkart, professor and vice chairman in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and associate director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology recognized for contributions to the field of natural product biosynthesis and chemical biology.
— Catherine Constable, professor of geophysics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, for studies of the earth's magnetic field.
— Richard Gallo, distinguished professor of dermatology and founding chair of the Department of Dermatology at the UCSD School of Medicine, for contributions to the field of microbial immunology.
— William Gerwick, a professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences who studies compounds produced by marine algae and cyanobacteria and their application in various areas of biomedicine.
— Miroslav Krstic, a vice chancellor for research and founding director of the Cymer Center for Control Systems and Dynamics, honored for studies that have applications for fluid flows, nuclear fusion, particle accelerators, batteries and semiconductor manufacturing.
— Lorraine Pillus, professor of molecular biology and associate dean of the Division of Biological Sciences, recognized for developing creative approaches to gene discovery and the illumination of functional genetic interactions.
The other honorees are Keith Trujillo, a Cal State San Marcos psychology professor who leads several national programs designed to increase diversity in the sciences, and Stuart Harvey Rubin of SPAWAR, who specializes in information security.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows dates to 1874. Among famous AAAS fellows are incandescent light bulb inventor Thomas Edison, anthropologist Margaret Mead and biologist James Watson who, along with others, helped discover the structure of DNA.
