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Date: February 16, 2009
Contact: Patricia M. Hansen
Director of Communications & Public Affairs
Phone: 732-235-6307
Email: hansenmp@umdnj.edu
Professors Named Fellows of National Science Association
NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, NJ – Two professors at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School are among 486 scientists named 2009 fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
The AAAS Fellows are Michael Hampsey, PhD, professor and interim chair for the Department of Biochemistry, and Nancy Walworth, PhD, professor of pharmacology.
The pre-eminent U.S. scientific organization each year selects fellows based on their efforts in advancing science or fostering applications considered scientifically or socially distinguished. It cited Dr. Hampsey “for distinguished contributions to the field of molecular genetics, particularly for the elucidation of the mechanisms that regulate transcription in yeast.” Dr. Walworth was cited “for distinguished contributions to cell biology, particularly the discovery of the protein kinase Chk1 and its role in the cellular response to DNA damage.”
This year’s fellows were honored on Feb. 14, 2009, at the association’s annual meeting in Chicago. The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the prestigious journal, Science.
Dr. Hampsey, who joined the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School faculty in 1996, studies how genes are turned on and off in response to changing environmental signals. He has also been recognized for outstanding teaching and in 2005 was selected to the UMDNJ Stuart D. Cook Master Educators’ Guild. Since 2006, he has served as the interim chair of the Department of Biochemistry.
Dr. Walworth, who joined UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in 1994, studies mechanisms that allow cells to survive when exposed to agents that damage their DNA, such as chemotherapeutic agents used in cancer therapy or ultraviolet light. She was selected to the Stuart D. Cook Master Educators' Guild in 2007.
Founded in 1848, AAAS includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million.
