Four 天美影视传媒 researchers have been named AAAS Fellows, according to . They are among 449 newly elected fellows from around the world, who are recognized for their 鈥渟cientifically and socially distinguished achievements鈥� in science and engineering. New Fellows will receive an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin 鈥� representing science and engineering, respectively 鈥� to commemorate their election.

A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor. AAAS Fellows play a crucial role in shaping public policy, advancing scientific research and influencing national and global perspectives on critical issues. Becoming a AAAS Fellow is among the most distinct honors within the scientific community, and those elevated to the rank have made distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. All fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

This year鈥檚 UW AAAS fellows are:

, professor of biochemistry at the UW School of Medicine and the director of the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design, was recognized for his groundbreaking work in computational protein design. Baker鈥檚 early work was in predicting how chains of chemicals fold into molecular structures that determine protein functions. He went on to design new proteins from scratch to carry out tasks in medicine, technology and sustainability. His team is developing vaccines, targeted drug delivery for cancer, enzymes to break down environmental pollutants and innovative biomaterials, among other endeavors. Baker received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his scientific achievements to benefit humankind. He has also been awarded the Overton Prize in computational biology, Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences and Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences.

, professor and chair of neurobiology and biophysics at the UW School of Medicine, was honored for her distinguished contributions to cognitive and systems neuroscience. Buffalo, who is the Wayne E. Crill Endowed Professor, is particularly noted for her pioneering research on the neural basis of remembering and learning, and for advancing translational research into broader insights on human brain function. She studies the relationship between eye movements and activity in the hippocampus and other nearby brain regions involved in forming memories, navigating and recalling the emotional context of past events. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, which presented her with the Troland Award for innovative, multidisciplinary studies. She also helps train postdoctoral scholars at the UW Medicine Institute for Translational Immunology.

, professor and chair of genome sciences at the UW School of Medicine, was noted for her distinguished contributions to the fields of genetics and genomics. She is known for advancing knowledge of the mechanisms underlying molecular evolution and genetic variation in yeasts and in humans. Her lab develops new tools to study mutations and their consequences, genome structure, gene interactions, and the evolution of gene expression. She has a longstanding interest in how copy number variations 鈥� how many times a particular segment of DNA repeats 鈥� affect adaptation, and how these variations arise. Dunham applies her genomics methods to diverse topics, including the biology of aging and the emergence of multi-drug antibiotic resistance. Dunham is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar.

, UW professor of chemistry, was honored for distinguished contributions to the theoretical understanding of nanoscale light-matter interactions, particularly for the design and interpretation of advanced spectroscopies that use electrons and light to probe material excitations. Masiello is an applied physicist whose research focuses on creating simple-yet-rich theoretical models that bring insight and understanding to observations spanning from quantum materials to nanophotonics. Masiello was hired as an assistant professor at the UW in 2010. He is a faculty member in both the Molecular & Engineering Sciences Institute and the Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems, and is also an adjunct professor of applied mathematics and of materials science and engineering. Masiello’s honors include receiving an NSF CAREER Award and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, called PECASE, awarded by President Obama at the White House.

• , professor of neurobiology and biophysics, and adjunct professor of applied mathematics
• , Arthur B. McDonald Professor of Physics and director at the Center for Experimental Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics

Fairhall and Hertzog are among 120 new members and 30 international members elected 鈥渋n recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,鈥� . Chartered in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences provides policy advice and input to governmental, nonprofit and private organizations.

develops theoretical approaches to understand how nervous systems process information. She collaborates with experimental labs across the UW, examining information processing in systems that range from single neurons 鈥� nerve cells that receive and conduct signals 鈥� to neural networks. She鈥檚 studied how mosquitoes use heat and chemical cues to forage, and how neural inputs drive muscle activation and biomechanics in hydra 鈥� tiny, tentacled invertebrates that live in water.

Fairhall grew up in Australia. She completed her master鈥檚 and Ph.D. in physics at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. She was a postdoctoral scholar at Princeton University before joining the UW School of Medicine faculty in 2004. Among Fairhall鈥檚 honors and awards are a Sloan Fellowship, a Burroughs Wellcome 鈥淐areers at the Scientific Interface鈥� Fellowship and a McKnight Scholar Award. She was named an Allen Institute Distinguished Investigator. In 2022, she was Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at the 脡cole Normale Sup茅rieure in Paris.

Hertzog leads the UW , a research group that has designed and constructed detectors for high-precision experiments with muons 鈥� similar to electrons, but about 200 times more massive 鈥� conducted at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago. The UW team also has led efforts to analyze the massive amounts of data produced in that experiment, known as the聽.

The overarching goal is to test the 鈥� a theory to describe how the universe works at its most fundamental level.聽Studying the behavior of muons may help determine whether muons are interacting solely with known particles and forces, or if unknown particles or forces exist.

Hertzog completed his Ph.D. in physics at The College of William & Mary. Following time at Carnegie-Mellon University and the University of Illinois, he joined the UW as a professor in 2010. He鈥檚 served on numerous scientific advisory committees and panels and is coauthor of more than 200 papers and technical reports. He has mentored or co-mentored more than 20 Ph.D. students and 15 postdoctoral researchers.

With this year鈥檚 additions, the National Academy of Sciences now has 2,662 active members and 556 international members.

Five 天美影视传媒 researchers have been named AAAS Fellows, according to a . They are among 471 newly elected fellows from around the world, who are recognized for their 鈥渟cientifically and socially distinguished achievements鈥� in science and engineering. A tradition dating back to 1874, election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor. All fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

This year鈥檚 UW AAAS fellows are:

, professor of genome sciences in UW Medicine, was recognized for her distinguished contributions to the field of the evolution of tissue development by signaling pathways and to the training of junior scientists. She studies developmental biology, and her work focuses on the patterns and shapes that appear as an organism forms into a living creature composed of a variety of cell types and organs. Her laboratory models are fruit flies, and her investigations begin in the egg chamber and the laid egg. Among her research interests are cell signals and cell migration critical to development, and the evolution of these processes. In addition, new genomic technologies are enabling her research team to manipulate the timing and location of gene activity within developing fly cells. Berg and her team also have designed a system to obtain live imaging of some of the developmental events that take place. Among Berg鈥檚 overarching goals is to better understand the genetic and molecular dysfunctions that lead to prenatal malformations and other disorders. The hope, Berg says, is that basic research, over the long term, might lead to clinical diagnostics for risk factors and to evaluation of potential treatments. Berg鈥檚 course topics are wide-ranging, and include introductory biology, biomedical ethics and forensic genetics at crime scenes.

, the David R. M. Scott Endowed Professor in Forest Resources and professor of plant microbiology in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, was recognized for distinguished contributions to unraveling mechanisms by which microbes colonize plants, increase plant growth and yields in nutrient-limited conditions, increase water use efficiency and drought tolerance, and improve plant health. Her research is on the importance of the plant microbiome as a resource for nature-based solutions to environmental challenges including pollution, climate change and colonizing the moon. A UW faculty member since 2003, she has received several awards and honors including the Lockwood Endowed Professorship (2013-2021), Director鈥檚 Faculty Award for 鈥渆xemplary contributions to student mentoring鈥� and the Faculty Member of the Year award (2014). She serves on the executive teams of the International Poplar Commission (Co-Vice Chair, Environmental and Ecosystem Services) and the International Symbiosis Society (VP, Education). She holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Microbiology.

, professor of microbiology in UW Medicine, was recognized for his distinguished contributions to the field of microbial interactions, particularly with regard to unraveling mechanisms responsible for the formation of surface-attached communities called biofilms. Parsek explores the social biology of bacterial communities. One of his areas of investigation is quorum-sensing 鈥� how bacteria use signaling molecules to sense the presence of others of the same species. This communication system allows them to coordinate their behavior as a group. Another of his related fields of interest is biofilms. These are bacteria that produce an extracellular matrix to bind themselves together. The matrix protects the community and plays a role, for example, in resistance to antimicrobials and antibiotics and in the persistence of chronic infection. Parsek鈥檚 lab studies the composition of this matrix and how it is assembled. They are especially interested in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which lives in several different environmental niches, but is notorious for infecting the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients and for colonizing burn wounds and growing on implanted biomaterials. In recent work his lab looked at how these bacteria can sense surfaces. A UW faculty member since 2011, Parsek is a member of the American Academy of Microbiology and was named a Kavli fellow by the National Academy of Sciences.

, the Lloyd and Kay Chapman Endowed Chair for Oral Health in the UW School of Dentistry, was recognized for translating knowledge from the behavioral and social sciences to address the causes of children鈥檚 oral health inequities. In recent years Chi has studied why some parents reject fluoride for their children and worked with Yup鈥檌k communities to improve the oral health of Alaska Native children. In 2018 he was named Pediatric Dentist of the Year by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and in 2025 he received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) from President Joe Biden. A member of the UW faculty since 2010, Chi is also the associate dean for research in the School of Dentistry and a professor of health systems and population health in the UW School of Public Health. He is editor-in-chief the International Journal of Paediatric Dentistry and treats patients at the Odessa Brown Children鈥檚 Clinic in Seattle.

, the Larry R. Dalton Endowed Chair in Chemistry and associate dean for research in the College of Arts & Sciences, is honored for his contributions to the development and application of time-dependent quantum theory and relativistic electronic structure theory, and for advancing educational pathways and diversity in STEM. Li conducts research at the intersection of physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics and scientific computing, and he has developed widely used computational software. A UW faculty member since 2005, Li’s honors include a Sloan Research Fellowship, the NSF CAREER Award, the American Chemical Society Jack Simons Award in Theoretical Physical Chemistry and the UW Distinguished Teaching Award. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), a Lab Fellow at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and an elected member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences.

The four new AAAS fellows among the UW faculty are:

, professor emeritus in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, is honored for contributions to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Domingos is particularly known for his introduction of Markov logic networks, which presented a simple yet efficient approach to unifying first-order logic and probabilistic reasoning to support inference learning. He also helped pioneer the field of adversarial learning, producing the first algorithm to automate the process of adversarial classification to enable data mining systems to adapt rapidly against evolving adversarial attacks. Domingos subsequently contributed the first unsupervised approach to semantic parsing, which enables machines to extract knowledge from text and speech, a process that underpins machine learning and natural language processing. In 2015, he published 鈥�,鈥� a book that examines how machine learning increasingly influences every aspect of people鈥檚 lives. Domingos joined the UW faculty in 1999 and remains active in research after attaining emeritus status earlier this year.

, professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, is a pioneer in brain-machine interfaces. His earlier work was on the brain鈥檚 direction of arm and leg movements. Fetz later showed that the brain could volitionally control certain nerve cells, called cortical neurons, in various patterns. This became the foundation for research on the unexpected ability of neural activity to drive external devices. Fetz also conducted studies of interneurons in the spine, and demonstrated that they had many properties of cells in the cortex, including their preparation to carry out instructed movements. Fetz also developed dynamic network models to simulate neural interactions that target tracking and short-term memory. In an historical achievement, his lab designed and tested an implantable neurochip that can record activity of cortical cells and convert this in real-time to stimulate the cortex, spinal cord or muscles. The brain can learn to incorporate this artificial feedback loop into behaviors. The neurochip holds future promise for clinical applications, such as moving paralyzed muscles.

is a professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, as well as a professor in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Raftery studies the small molecules at work during metabolism in cells, animals and people. He has developed analytical and statistical methods to profile metabolites in complex biological samples. Metabolites are the end products of many biochemical functions in living systems. Raftery鈥檚 research is working to discover sensitive biomarkers indicating the presence of disease and its progression. He has applied his advances in metabolomics to detect very early stages of cancer, as well as in his research on diabetes and heart disease. He is a scientist at the UW Mitochondrial and Metabolism Center, which, among its goals, is investigating the roles of cell metabolism dysfunction in common diseases and is also seeking related diagnostic and therapeutic tools. Raftery also directs the interdisciplinary Northwest Metabolomics Research Center, which fosters collaborations among scientists from several institutions. The lab uses some of the latest technologies and capabilities to improve the metabolic understanding of a variety of serious disorders.

, a professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, was honored for his contributions to artificial intelligence spanning automated planning, software agents, crowdsourcing and internet information extraction, as well as his efforts to commercialize AI technologies. Weld leads the UW鈥檚 , where he focuses on advancing explainable AI to allow people to better understand and control AI-powered tools, assistants and systems and combine human and machine intelligence to accomplish more together than alone. Weld has co-founded multiple startup companies, including Netbot, Inc., which produced the first online comparison shopping engine that was subsequently acquired by Excite, and AdRelevance, an early provider of tools for monitoring online advertising data acquired by Nielsen Netratings. A member of the UW faculty since 1988, Weld is a venture partner and member of the Technology Advisory Board of Madrona Venture Group and Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, where he also leads the focused on the development of AI-powered tools to help scientists extract useful knowledge from scholarly literature.

In addition, , a professor in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, was selected 鈥渇or distinguished contributions to the field of HIV prevention research, particularly for design and analysis of clinical trials of pre-exposure prophylaxis and treatment as prevention.鈥� Donnell is also a UW affiliate of global health and of health services.

鈥淲e congratulate these incoming members of the Academy for excelling in a broad array of fields; we want to celebrate them and learn from them,鈥� said Nancy C. Andrews, chair of the Board of Directors of the American Academy. 鈥淲hen Academy members come together, bringing their expertise and insights to our work, they help develop new insights and potential solutions for some of the most complex challenges we face.鈥�

Cauce 鈥� who was named to the Educational and Academic Leadership section of the Academy鈥檚 Public Affairs, Business and Administration class 鈥� became the 33rd president of the UW on Oct. 13, 2015 after serving as interim president for seven months and having previously served as provost and executive vice president.

Throughout her career, Cauce has championed access to higher education, including through the , which provides full tuition to eligible Washington students who otherwise could not attend college. As part of her strong belief in ensuring access to higher education for all, just one month into her role as interim president she engaged students in an honest discussion about race and equity, to create a more just and diverse community.

Cauce is a professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies, with secondary appointments in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and the College of Education. She maintains an active research program, focusing on adolescent development, with a special emphasis on at-risk youth. She is also a strong advocate for women and underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Davis was named to the Cellular and Developmental Biology (including Genetics), Microbiology and Immunology Section of the Biological Sciences Class of the Academy. Davis and her colleagues explore the dynamics of the chromosome capture that occurs in preparation for cell division.

Impressive molecular machinery tries to assure that each cell resulting from the split receives a proper set of chromosomes. Mistakes in sorting, separating and distributing the chromosomes could cause serious problems, such as cancer. Davis鈥� team looks at how the movement and segregation of chromosomes is orchestrated. This chromosome assembly is trial and error, but cells usually can find and fix mistakes. As chromosomes attach to the separation machinery, checkpoints tune into to the connection and the tension it produces. If this quality assurance detects that a chromosome is incorrectly captured, it is released for another try.

The Davis lab uses many ways of examining this and related controls. These include genetic analysis, proteomics, quantitative microscopy, computational modeling and biochemical assays.

Davis holds the Earl W. Davie/ZymoGenetics Chair in Biochemistry at UW Medicine. She also heads the UW鈥檚 Yeast Resource Center, funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop technologies for exploring protein structure and function.

Toro was named to the Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics section of the Academy鈥檚 Mathematical and Physical Sciences class. Her research centers on the premise that objects, which may at first appear irregular or disordered, actually have regular features that are quantifiable. Toro鈥檚 work spans geometric measure theory, harmonic analysis and partial differential equations. Toro studies the mathematical questions that come up in systems where the known data are 鈥渞ough,鈥� as well as interfaces that arise in 鈥渘oisy鈥� minimization problems.

In addition to her research, Toro has also worked to increase diversity in mathematics. She helped launch Latinx in the Mathematical Sciences, including two conferences through the National Science Foundation highlighting the achievements of Latinx mathematicians.

Toro joined the UW faculty in 1996 and her career includes numerous honors and accolades. Last year, she received the UW鈥檚 Marsha L. Landolt Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award. In 2017, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. Toro has also been a Guggenheim Fellow, an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow and a Simons Foundation Fellow.

Founded in 1780, the is one of the country鈥檚 oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world.

The new members join the company of Academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the eighteenth century; Ralph Waldo Emerson and Maria Mitchell in the nineteenth; and Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the twentieth.

Learn more about the Academy’s , , and on its website .

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The six UW faculty members who have been named as fellows are:

, professor emeritus in the School of Oceanography, is honored for his continuing work on the ecology of the plankton, the very small algae and animals that float with the currents. His career has focused on how plankton interact with light, temperature, oxygen, bound nitrogen, iron and other nutrients. At sea, Banse worked in the Baltic, the North Sea and Puget Sound, but especially the Arabian Sea. In other work, using an early color global satellite, he investigated the offshore seasonality of phytoplankton chlorophyll. With former students he also studied bottom-living polychaetous annelid worms and published identification keys for the nearly 500 species of these worms found between Oregon and southeast Alaska, between the shore and about 200 meters depth. Banse joined the UW faculty in 1960. The 90-year-old researcher became emeritus in 1995 and remains scientifically active.

, a professor of health metrics sciences and director of the at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, was selected for his research resolving infectious diseases in space and time in order to expose inequalities in health metrics and improve intervention strategies. He currently leads an international collaboration of researchers from a wide variety of academic disciplines to create even better maps of infectious disease. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and other contributions, including two major, in-depth research papers published independently. His published works are cited more than 18,000 times each year, leading to more than 82,000 lifetime citations. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hay has embarked on a project to expand this research to a much wider range of diseases to ultimately harmonize this mapping with the Global Burden of Disease Study, IHME’s signature project.

, a professor of microbiology, studies Kaposi鈥檚 Sarcoma Herpesvirus, a virus that alters the cells lining blood and lymphatic vessels. Those changes can cause Kaposi鈥檚 Sarcoma, a form of cancer that commonly affects AIDS patients worldwide and people in parts of central Africa. Lagunoff鈥檚 lab has studied how the Kaposi鈥檚 Sarcoma Herpesvirus interferes with endothelial cell signaling, gene expression and metabolism to promote the formation of tumors containing numerous blood vessels. His lab used RNA-sequencing, metabolomics, proteomics and other techniques to determine global changes in host-cell gene expression and signaling. This information has helped to identify key cellular pathways induced by the virus. His team is studying how the virus alters the host cell metabolism to mimic cancer cell metabolism, and is searching for novel therapeutic targets for Kaposi鈥檚 Sarcoma.

, a professor of pathology and genome sciences and an investigator at the , studies DNA damage and repair mechanisms, genome instability, and its role in cancer and other conditions. He is noted for his work on Werner, Bloom and Rothman-Thomson syndromes. These inherited disorders cause distinctive physical characteristics, such as premature aging in Werner鈥檚, and predispose to cancer. Monnat鈥檚 team explores how the loss of key proteins important to DNA metabolism may underlie these rare syndromes. Aberrant expression of those proteins may be common in some adult cancers and affect response to chemotherapy. Monnat and his group use certain genome engineering techniques to try to correct disease-causing mutations in patient-derived stem cells. His lab has also identified 鈥渟afe-harbor sites鈥� in the human genome where new genetic elements might be inserted without disrupting the expression of nearby genes.

, professor in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and the Department of Biology, is elected for her work in marine ecology. Her research focuses on seabird ecology, marine conservation and public science. A committed advocate of citizen science, she founded and directs the , which for two decades has enlisted coastal residents from California to Alaska to monitor West Coast beaches for dead birds and marine debris. Parrish spoke at the White House in 2013 about public engagement in science and scientific literacy. She holds the Lowell A. and Frankie L. Wakefield endowed professorship, and is associate dean for academic affairs in the UW College of the Environment.

, a professor of Earth and space sciences, is honored for his work in glaciology and climate science. Steig uses ice cores and other records to study climate variability over thousands of years. He works on the climate history and dynamics of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, and develops new tools to extract the chemical clues in samples of ice and other material. Steig was among the leaders of a project to drill the first deep ice core at South Pole, and was on the team that drilled a 2-mile-deep ice core in West Antarctica. His recent research has focused on the links between large-scale climate conditions and changes in West Antarctica, where glaciers are rapidly retreating. In addition to his research and teaching, he is committed to fostering greater public understanding of climate change, and is a founding contributor to RealClimate.org.

In addition, , an investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an affiliate professor of genome sciences at the UW, was selected for his research on genetic conflict.

, a UW professor of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of Public Health, is recognized “for studies of effects of oxidative stress on adverse health effects associated with exposure to air pollution and environmental chemicals.”

Kavanagh investigates adverse health effects of exposure to air pollution and chemicals to understand the mechanisms by which they cause toxicity and inflammation. He also studies the role of antioxidants and is developing more accurate in vitro models to test chemicals for potential risk to humans.

Kavanagh directs the UW and the UW and co-directs the . He is also an adjunct professor in the departments of Medicine and Pathology.

, professor of genome sciences at the UW School of Medicine, was selected for 鈥渢he development of technologies and methods to advance genetics and genomics, with a focus on technologies that impact the understanding of human diseases.鈥�

Shendure leads a research group that advances rapid, less-expensive, next-generation DNA sequencing. He is also a pioneer in that looks at the protein-coding regions of an individual鈥檚 genome. Exome sequencing is now being used by groups worldwide to find gene variants for single-gene disorders and for disease traits influenced by multiple genes.

Shendure directs the , established last year to combine the scientific strengths in precision medicine of UW Medicine, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Children’s. He is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and directs the .

The 2017 fellows are:

, professor and chair of microbiology, was chosen for his seminal work on topological problems in DNA replication, repair and related activities. His research helps explain how the DNA double helix overcomes mechanical obstacles posed by its twisted structure. Resembling a wound-up rope-ladder, DNA becomes entangled when its rungs split to allow itself to replicate. Champoux studied an enzyme called DNA topoisomerase that provides swivels to remove these tangles. His lab has explored many other structural and mechanical aspects of nucleic acid structure and synthesis, such as DNA coiling and relaxation. In addition, Champoux researches replication in retroviruses, and the effects of anticancer drugs on the DNA topoisomerase. This is his 45^th year as a UW School of Medicine faculty member.

, professor of both pediatrics and laboratory medicine, was selected for her distinguished research on HIV infections in newborns, children and adults. She is noted for her U.S. and global health efforts to prevent transmission of HIV from mothers to their infants, particularly in places lacking adequate healthcare and economic resources. Her research encompasses: why HIV infections persist despite effective antiviral therapy; why people treated for HIV continue to have higher cancer rates; and how drug-resistant HIV becomes established in children and adults. Frenkel is collaborating with bioengineers on a quick, affordable test for detecting HIV drug resistance. She practices at the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Virology Clinic at and co-directs the Seattle Children鈥檚 Center for Global Infectious Diseases.

, professor and chair of physiology & biophysics, was recognized for his distinguished work on the molecular mechanisms of muscular dystrophies, a category of diseases that cause muscle wasting. His hope is to repurpose existing drugs and find new drugs to slow muscle degeneration and heart failure in Duchenne muscular dystrophy as well as other muscle diseases. His lab studies the structure and signaling activity of the dystrophin complex, which is important in skeletal muscle and the heart. 聽In 1987 his team discovered the syntrophins, a family of proteins that associate with dystrophin and recruit signaling proteins, channels, transporters and receptors to the cell membrane.聽These proteins also play important roles at the junction between nerve cells and muscle fibers and at the blood-brain barrier. Froehner鈥檚 investigation of the dystrophin complex is also relevant to other medical conditions, including stroke, brain swelling, epilepsy, and heart and blood vessel disorders.

, professor of medicine and a investigator, was chosen for elucidating some of the molecular features of the evolutionary arms race between cytomegalovirus and its human hosts. Most people who carry cytomegalovirus have no symptoms. However, for newborns, transplant recipients, AIDS patients and others with weak immune systems, the virus can cause health problems. Geballe鈥檚 lab has discovered genes on the human cytomegalovirus that can block the body鈥檚 antiviral response. Geballe is a physician at the , where he specializes in treating infectious diseases.

, professor of medicine and genome sciences, and head of the Division of Medical Genetics, was selected for her contributions to the field of human genetics. She was recognized for work on the genetics of common, complex diseases, including cancer, dementia, stroke and immune disorders. She is a collaborator in the (Electronic Medical Records and Genomics) network.聽 This consortium combines DNA biorepositories with data from clinical records to conduct large-scale genomic studies for a variety of conditions. Jarvik also studies the implementation of genomic medicine in clinical practice. She is a physician at the UW Medicine Genomics Clinic.

, professor of pathology, is noted for his contributions to the understanding of the molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging and longevity. He studies how some mechanisms were conserved during evolution across species, from yeast and worms and to mice and humans. He has looked at several factors proposed to slow down aging, such as caloric restriction and the drug rapamycin. His lab focuses on developing therapies to delay the onset of age-related diseases in people by targeting biological pathways associated with aging. In other endeavors, his Dog Aging Project is looking to extend the active lifespan of pets. Kaeberlein was the founding director of the at the UW.聽 He also has served as co-director of the UW鈥檚 .

, professor of mechanical engineering, was honored for contributions in fluid mechanics. His research focuses on modeling and numerical simulation of various transitioning and turbulent flows, which play an important role in many natural and technological processes ranging from the fate of ozone in the atmosphere, to the properties of gas turbine engines, to the efficient and clean use of energy. Riley has made advancements in the understanding of turbulent, multi-phase flows; turbulent density-stratified flows; turbulent shear flows and turbulent reacting flows. He teaches courses in fluid mechanics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and is an adjunct professor in applied mathematics and in aeronautics and astronautics. Riley is also a member the National Academy of Engineering and of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of both the American Physical Society and American Society of Mechanical Engineers, among other honors. He has been at the UW since 1983 and holds the PACCAR Professorship in Engineering.

, an affiliate professor of aquatic and fishery sciences, chemistry and law, was elected for her contributions to environmental chemistry and toxicology. She is particularly noted for establishing and communicating the impact of environmental contaminants 鈥� especially hydrocarbons 鈥� on marine organisms and ecosystems. Her research on how marine organisms process contaminants led to the development of techniques used by NOAA to inform the impacts of oil-related pollution on fisheries resources and ensure that seafood is safe for human consumption. Based on their widely recognized expertise in oil spill detection and rapid analysis, Varanasi and her team were at the forefront of the agency’s seafood safety response after environmental catastrophes, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the Persian Gulf War and Hurricane Katrina. Varanasi retired at the end of 2010 as the science and research director of NOAA’s , a position she held since 1994 when she became the first woman to lead a fisheries field office. A UW doctoral alumna, Varanasi is now a Distinguished Scholar in Residence with the UW’s College of the Environment and the Center for Urban Waters.

, a senior scientist at NOAA/Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and an affiliate professor of oceanography at the UW, was also聽named a AAAS fellow this year for leading聽research聽efforts on ocean acidification and shifting public policy to address the growing environmental issue.

The UW fellows are:

, professor of atmospheric sciences, was elected for his outstanding contributions to measuring and understanding how radiative heat is transferred through the Earth’s atmosphere, and how this relates to climate and climate change. Fu’s work interpreting satellite data established a key consistency in climate warming in recent decades between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface. He discovered a shift toward the poles of subtropical jets in a warming climate, showing a widening of the tropics. His parameterization of optical properties of cirrus clouds has been widely used in global climate models. Fu is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and a fellow of the American Meteorological Society, and holds an affiliate faculty position at China’s Lanzhou University. He earned his doctorate at the University of Utah in 1991 and joined the UW in 2000.

, professor of anthropology, was chosen for her contributions at the interface of anthropology, demography and endocrinology, particularly in the areas of hormones and behavior and reproduction across the life span. O’Connor is the director of the UW’s Biological Anthropology and Biodemography Laboratory, which specializes in developing and optimizing collection methods and assays for population-level research in reproductive ecology. O’Connor’s research and teaching interests focus on variation in human fertility and mortality, as well as the biological, cultural and environmental factors that contribute to that variation. In her research on human fertility, O’Connor examines aged-related, population and individual-level variation in female productive function. Her latest research focuses on men’s health, with the goal of understanding the biological and behavioral factors that cause men to have higher mortality rates than women. O’Connor earned her doctorate from the State University of New York at Albany in 1995 and has been a member of the UW faculty since 1999.

, professor of pathology, is noted for his work on the biology of longevity.聽In mammalian cells, he studies physiological and biochemical processes that contribute to a longer, healthier life. His research with transgenic mouse models has increased knowledge of cell signals that delay physical decline. For example, the Rabinovitch lab looks at pathways that might mitigate the aging effects of oxygen metabolism byproducts and of damage to mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses. Certain chemicals and signaling pathways appear to protect against some debilitations of advancing age: enlargement of the heart, heart failure, loss of muscle tissue and certain cancers. Rabinovitch is the founding director of the UW Nathan Shock Center for Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, one of five in the country funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. He also is a leader in training new scientists in his field. He has received a Senior Scholar in Aging grant from the Ellison Medical Foundation and a Breakthroughs in Gerontology grant from the American Federation for Aging Research. Rabinovitch earned both his doctoral and medical degrees at the UW, and joined the faculty in 1981.

, professor of pharmacology, is interested in the coordination, timing and precision of protein interactions. He studies a small protein called ubiquitin that is found in almost all living things, except primitive lifeforms. Cells use ubiquitin to control activities of many other proteins. This modification 鈥� called protein ubiquitination 鈥� regulates nearly all biological functions. Problems with protein ubiquitination have been linked to cancer, susceptibility to infection and neurological disorders. Zheng uses X-ray crystallography to visualize the atomic details of protein ubiquitination. His work has suggested new strategies for protecting cells’ antiviral pathways during virus attacks. He also studies how plant hormones and metabolic compounds manage the chemical transfer of ubiquitin onto proteins. His findings may open new avenues for developing drugs that enhance protein interactions. In addition, Zheng analyzes cell membrane proteins to discover potential drug-binding sites. Zheng is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and his projects are also supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Pew Scholar Program, the National Science Foundation and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He earned his doctorate at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and has been at the UW since 2002.

But each graduate聽has a story about arriving at the university, balancing challenging academics and activities and looking forward to life after graduation. UW Today聽offers these profiles as a sample.

Bioengineering graduate worked on HIV vaccine, now headed to NIH

Hunter Bennett’s high school diploma was only several months old when he walked into the 天美影视传媒 bioengineering lab of Kim Woodrow nearly four years ago, looking for research opportunities. The new freshman was eager to work in a bioengineering lab, and he wasted little time in carving out a spot with the research team that’s creating biomaterials to fight infections and build immunity.

Now a graduating senior, Bennett was chosen to carry a College of Engineering banner at Commencement. He also the college’s 2014 Dean’s Medal for Academic Excellence. The Bellingham, Washington, native will begin a post-baccalaureate training program after graduation with the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics at the National Institutes of Health.

Bennett’s four years of coursework at the UW was coupled with extensive work in Woodrow’s lab, often 20 hours each week. He said this experience allowed him to work closely with faculty members and complement what he was learning in the classroom. In the lab he examined bio-polymer methods for delivering genetically modified cells that could stimulate a protective immune response to HIV.

“Faculty members want to see undergraduate students succeed,” Bennett said. “If you’re motivated, you can go out and find research opportunities here. So I went for it.”

While at the UW, Bennett earned the Levinson Emerging Scholars Program award and served in the Amgen Scholars Program in a University of California, Los Angeles, bioengineering lab for a summer. He also received the Washington Scholars award, the Bioengineering Department Scholar award and a Washington Research Foundation Fellowship award, among other honors. He served as vice president of Bioengineers Without Borders where he helped to design a smartphone-compatible diagnostic test.

Bennett plans to attend medical school and complete his doctorate in a dual-degree program. He’s interested in how patients relate to medicine, and he hopes to change perceptions of the field and make it more relatable for people.

School of Law graduate moves from war zone to courtroom

A good litigator, like a good soldier, tries to be prepared for what lies ahead. Lance Pelletier knows this, and credits his military experience with helping to clarify for him that the law would be his chosen profession.

Pelletier, 30, is graduating from the UW School of Law with a Doctor of Jurisprudence degree. A decorated veteran, he served the United States Army with distinction in the Joint Border Coordination Center in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border. Initially commissioned as a lieutenant, Pelletier exited the military with the rank of captain.

He said his service showed him the value of understanding a situation from the details to the larger, often dangerous realities: “One of the things I learned as an officer was the importance of procedure and how that enables effective decision making.”

He said, “We were trying to build things that had never been built before 鈥� trying to freely share intelligence and information, to build a network of trust and a functional border infrastructure for two countries that never really had one before.”

Pelletier graduated from DePaul University in 2006 with a bachelor of arts in English and high honors and was named Most Outstanding ROTC Cadet one year as well as president of DePaul’s Honors Program.

He graduated from the U.S. Army Field Artillery School the following year and was assigned to Fort Lewis, Washington. In 2011, after completing his tour of duty, Pelletier returned to DePaul for law school.

He transferred to the UW in 2012. He participated in mock trial competitions and was invited into the Order of the Barristers, the law school’s highest award for mock trial and moot court participation. Pelletier also reinstated the UW chapter of Phi Alpha Delta, the nation’s largest legal fraternity.

He plans to study for the bar next, after which he will work as a clerk for Washington state Supreme Court Justice .

With five and a half years of active duty following four years of college ROTC training, Pelletier said, he is at home with moving around frequently and taking opportunities as they come up.

“It gives you flexibility to seek new challenges,” he said. “I am not intimidated by moving, or starting over.”

English graduate aims to make literary canon more diverse

Shang茅 Purnell always wanted to go to college. She had many reasons, but one in particular stood out.

“When I was little my mom used to tell the story that if she and my dad had graduated from college we would have lived in a house with a swimming pool. So that was always in the back of my mind, that someday I wanted to have a swimming pool,” Purnell said.

The English major will be the first in her family to graduate from college and was chosen to carry a College of Arts & Sciences banner at Commencement.

Purnell, who grew up in Everett and Mukilteo, Washington, hopes to eventually obtain a doctorate in English literature and theory and teach at the college level, with the goal of helping to increase diversity of the traditional body of literary works.

“The highbrow elite have set what is highbrow literature 鈥� Shakespeare and other mostly white European authors,” Purnell said. “We’re starting to get more diversity, but it’s still very narrow, it’s still a Eurocentric perspective. I realize that being a U.S. citizen I have been conditioned to have a Eurocentric view, but I’d like to give view to the people of color in this world.”

Purnell has spent much of her college career pushing for more diversity at the UW, as an officer in the during her sophomore year, and a member of the Students for Diversity Coalition, which successfully convinced the university to implement a diversity credit requirement.

Last year she spent one quarter studying in London, then a month studying and working in Ghana, where she taught English and math to 9- to 13-year-olds. She tried to see that world with fresh eyes.

“It was like what you see on the Save the Children commercials, but with a different narrative,” she explained. “They were living their lives; they weren’t just slaves to the past, or slaves to their poverty. We tried to look at it from not just a Western perspective.”

MEDEX Northwest graduate inspired by Army medic duties, childhood聽difficulties

Dustin Golding and his Kennewick, Washington, family had a hardscrabble life. Dustin’s construction-worker father would suture his own job-site wounds with household needle and thread. Mindful of such rudimentary medicine and lacking money for college, Dustin joined the U.S. Army and became a medic.

In eight years of service, he was deployed twice to Afghanistan and once to Iraq, increasingly in a lead position. As a medical platoon sergeant, Golding commanded more than 20 medics and multiple aid stations. His final mission also enabled him to interact closely with civilians at a free clinic set up by the post, an experience he relished.

He left the military with medical skills and a desire, after three deployments, to be on a relatively shorter timeline to a civilian career and family life. So he pursued physician-assistant training in the UW’s MEDEX Northwest two-year program, which he graduates from this month.

Now 29, Golding has resettled in Kennewick with his wife and two young sons.

“Commitment to service 鈥� to the nation, to the community 鈥� has continued to build for me,” he said. “I like my community and I want to see its healthcare improve. I help at a free clinic here, Grace Clinic, where there’s a need for providers. I’m young and learning and growing, and I’d like to develop my skills and leadership to become an advocate for people and providers here.”

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