Six UF faculty members named AAAS Fellows

November 25, 2014

Six University of Florida professors have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor given to AAAS members by their peers for their efforts to advance science or its applications. The six join 37 UF professors listed by the AAAS as fellows, a distinction also earned by President-elect Kent Fuchs in 2010.  

The fellows named this year are

  • Cammy Abernathy, Dean of the College of Engineering, for distinguished contributions to the fields of materials, industrial science and engineering through professional efforts in research, teaching and administration in industry and academia.
  • Robert Cousins, Boston Family Professor of Nutrition and director of the Center for Nutritional Studies in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, for seminal research discoveries on the mechanisms underlying the function, physiology, and regulation of zinc homeostasis in health and disease.
  • Bruce MacFadden, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, for distinguished contributions to the field of vertebrate paleontology, with emphasis on extinct mammals of the Americas and the evolution of fossil horses.
  • Andrew Hanson, professor of horticultural sciences in the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, for distinguished contributions in the field of plant biochemistry and metabolism, focusing on abiotic stress tolerance, one-carbon metabolism and metabolic repair.
  • Ann Progulske-Fox, professor of oral biology in the College of Dentistry, for distinguished contributions in the field of microbiology that have increased our understanding of the links between oral and systemic health.
  • Wolfgang Sigmund, materials science professor in the College of Engineering, for distinguished contributions to synthesis and processing techniques of nanomaterials, particularly demonstrating that ceramic nanofibers can be made via electrospinning.

This year’s 401 fellows were honored for their contributions in the 24 sections of AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society,which has named fellows since 1874.

For more information, visit aaas.org