Five Brown faculty members have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, receiving a prestigious honor that recognizes leaders in the field for their important contributions to the physical and life sciences.
Professor of Neuroscience John Donoghue, Professors of Biology Mark Bertness and Susan Gerbi, Professor of Medical Science David Berson '75 and Professor of Engineering Jimmy Xu were all elected fellows in December and featured in the Dec. 19 issue of Science, the top-level journal published by the AAAS.
"I just congratulate the faculty," said Clyde Briant, the University's vice president for research. "It's wonderful for them and it's wonderful for Brown." He said the awards not only are very high honors for the faculty but further establish Brown as a major research university.
Four of the professors said they did not expect to be named fellows of the world's largest scientific body. Donoghue could not be reached for comment.
"It came as a big surprise to me," said Gerbi. "I didn't know I was nominated."
Gerbi studies ribosomes - the parts of cells responsible for building proteins from the genetic blueprint - and the initiation of DNA replication. She and her team of researchers discovered that ribosome biogenesis - the cellular process of making ribosomes - could be used diagnostically for predicting cancer. In her research, Gerbi found that a certain steroid hormone receptor is important in initiating DNA replication, a significant discovery regarding hormonally sensitive cancers such as breast cancer.
She said she hopes the discovery will lead to finding new kinds of therapy targets and to earlier diagnoses of these types of cancers - a result that has personal implications for Gerbi, herself diagnosed with breast cancer two years ago.
Xu - recognized for his contributions to nanotechnology and laser science and the only non-biologist honored - said he too was surprised to learn of his election as an AAAS fellow.
"What I do is just fun things," he said. "I pursue science and explore what's interesting regardless where," he said, referring to the many different fields of science he researches such as engineering and photonics - the study of light generation and transmission. "I guess I'm sort of homeless," he said. "I stake out where I can find shelter and have some fun."
Berson, recognized for his work in visual neuroscience, said he initially thought his admittance to the association "had to be a mistake."
"I'm a one-trick pony, and they're mistaking me for a thoroughbred," Berson said. He added that he suspects he was chosen because of research he conducted in 2002 regarding a new type of neuron in the retina. He said he studies what the eye tells the brain to inform it about the visual world.
Bertness, who does experimental studies of shoreline communities such as salt marshes, sand dunes and rock shores, jokingly speculated that he was elected because he's "an old guy."
Donoghue, the director of the brain science program at Brown, was elected for his research on the brain signals that lead to voluntary movements.
