American Association for the Advancement of Science names 14 UF faculty Lifetime Fellows
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals, has elected 14 faculty from the University of Florida to its newest class.
The honor is among the most distinguished in the scientific community and recognizes extraordinary impact and achievement across disciplines, from research, teaching and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.
AAAS has awarded the following faculty from UF:
Frank Asche, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor in the UF/IFAS School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences and associate director of the Integrative Fisheries Science program. Asche's research interests focus on aquaculture and seafood production and markets, but he has also contributed work in the fields of fisheries management, energy economics and more generally, food systems. Recent research topics include the international seafood trade, food supply chain organization and innovation’s impact on productivity development within seafood markets and governance systems.
Zhenli He, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor of soil fertility and environmental chemistry at the UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center (IRREC). He is currently a research foundation professor. His research focuses on soil biogeochemistry, nutrient management and the remediation of contaminated soil and water. He teaches courses on soil quality and nanotechnology applications in food, agriculture and environment. He is actively involved in several professional organizations and serves on editorial boards for multiple scientific journals and was elected as a fellow for the Soil Science Society of America and the American Society of Agronomy. He has been with IRREC since 2004 and is dedicated to advancing sustainable agriculture through his research and teaching.
John Krigbaum, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology and has been teaching at UF for 24 years. Krigbaum is a broadly trained biological anthropologist with active research interests in bioarchaeology, zooarchaeology and paleoanthropology. He directs the Bone Chemistry Lab where he leads collaborative training and research initiatives using a variety of isotope systems and tissues recovered from archaeological and paleontological sites. Krigbaum has contributed to leadership in myriad forms at the department, college and university levels and is a faculty leader with the UF Quest program which seeks to revitalize undergraduate education helping to prepare students to thoughtfully navigate a complex and interconnected world.
William Barbazuk, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a professor with the Department of Biology and is a recognized expert in plant genomics, genome analysis, bioinformatics and computational biology. Barbazuk develops and employs computational, comparative and functional genomics approaches to study genome architecture, function and evolution. His research projects involve collecting primary genome annotation data in the form of genome sequences and catalogues of genes, and developing methods and tools to leverage next generation sequence capacities to address fundamental evolutionary questions concerning genome and transcriptome evolution.
Daniel A. Hahn, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor and associate department chair for research in the UF/IFAS Entomology and Nematology Department. His research focuses on understanding how insects sense and adapt to their environments, including human-modified environments. Hahn uses this knowledge of insect physiology and evolution to develop solutions to eliminate insects that may harm human health, agriculture and homes, as well as to protect and preserve insects that may have benefits to society. Hahn teaches graduate courses in insect physiology and professional development. He mentors undergraduate and graduate students, as well as post-doctoral fellows. Hahn is also active as an international expert for the International Atomic Energy Agency and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
Arie Hendrik Havelaar, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor in the UF/IFAS Department of Animal Sciences, where he focuses on microbial risk assessment and the epidemiology of foodborne diseases. At UF, Havelaar's research aims to develop systems to aid food and nutrition security, emphasizing the relationship between food production and human health, especially related to disease-causing microorganisms. Havelaar's research also focuses on supporting intestinal disease tracking and investigating health impacts of human-animal cohabitation in other countries. He is also affiliated with UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute and the Global Food Systems Institute. He supports the World Health Organization in updating the estimates of the global burden of foodborne disease.
Mitchell D. Knutson, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor of nutritional biochemistry in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department. His research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of iron and manganese transport in health and disease. He is recognized for his groundbreaking discoveries on the mechanisms of metal trafficking and their regulation. Knutson’s research is distinguished by 25 years of continuous NIH funding, multiple invited international keynote lectures and an impactful publication record with more than 11,000 citations.
Donald McCarty, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor of plant genetics and biochemistry. McCarty has focused on functional genomics of grain-filling and seed development in maize. His key accomplishments include discovery of carotenoid cleaving enzymes that synthesize vitamin A as well as hormones in plants and animals and discovery of B3-domain DNA binding proteins that have crucial roles in hormone regulation of plant development. He has published 106 peer-reviewed journal articles and secured $19 million in extramural funding.
Madan Oli, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor and distinguishedeaching scholar in the Department of Wildlife Ecology. His research spans population ecology, disease ecology, population viability analysis, human-wildlife interactions, carnivore ecology and wildlife conservation. Oli teaches courses in population ecology, population modeling and quantitative ecology. He directs the Population Ecology Lab, aiming to understand and manage biological populations in human-dominated landscapes. He serves on the editorial board of “Ecology,” the flagship journal of the Ecological Society of America. His team integrates ecological theory, mathematical models and field research to address conservation challenges. They study diverse species, including Florida panthers, yellow-bellied marmots, wild horses, snowshoe hares, Asian elephants and Indian wild dogs. Through collaborations and graduate students, Oli's research contributes to science-based wildlife management globally. His work is widely published and cited, reflecting the breadth and impact of his research with an impactful publication record of more than 200 papers and more than 10,200 citations.
Wilfred Vermerris, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor and associate chair in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science. His research focuses on the genetic improvement of crops for renewable fuels and chemicals. His lab primarily works with sweet sorghum, a crop well-suited to hot and dry climates, aiming to enhance sugar yield, biomass composition, disease resistance and resource use efficiency. By integrating structural biochemistry, genetic mapping and genome editing, his team develops new cultivars and hybrids adapted to local conditions. They also explore innovative uses for lignin, such as its use as an antimicrobial agent and the creation of lignin nanotubes for DNA delivery. His work is widely published and cited, reflecting the breadth and impact of his research with an impactful publication record of more than 100 articles and book chapters, two books and more than 9,200 citations. Vermerris has secured uninterrupted research funding for 24 years from the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mark Brenner, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, is a professor with the Department of Geological Sciences. He is a limnologist/paleolimnologist with special interests in tropical and subtropical lakes and watersheds. Brenner’s research is interdisciplinary and addresses long-term interactions among climate, environment and humans. His extensive fieldwork has taken him to Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Colombia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, China, Cambodia, and Madagascar. Brenner is a 2022 recipient of the International Paleolimnology Association (IPA) “Rick Battarbee Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Carlos Messina, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, is a professor of predictive breeding in the department of horticultural sciences, where he specialized in harnessing artificial intelligence to hasten the rate of genetic gain in crops. Messina works with breeders, horticulturalists and doctors to improve the nutritional value and resilience of produce and to reimagine agriculture as a solution to climate change. His professional achievements include serving as director of the UF/IFAS Crop Transformation Center, the creation of drought tolerant maize AQUAmax® with colleagues at Corteva, creating novel AI enabled prediction algorithms for modern breeding and publishing 121 peer-reviewed journal articles that were cited 10,670 times.
Arun Srivastava, College of Medicine, is a professor in the Division of Cellular and Molecular Therapy in the Departments of Pediatrics and Molecular Genetics and Microbiology and a member of the Powell Gene Therapy Center and UF Health Cancer Center. For more than four decades, he has made distinguished contributions to the field of gene therapy, particularly fundamental studies of adeno-associated virus (AAV) replication and the development of next-generation and optimized AAV vectors. Srivastava has received uninterrupted research funding for 41 years from the National Institutes of Health. He has been awarded 21 U.S. patents and founded four startups. His laboratory has identified two AAV vectors for primary human cells and his current research focuses on gene therapy for genetic diseases, such as hemophilia and muscular dystrophies, malignant disorders such as hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma and nuclease-free genome editing for β-thalassemia and sickle cell disease.
Dr. Borna Mehrad, College of Medicine, is the Ethel Smith research professor, chief of the UF division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine and vice-chair for research in the UF Department of Medicine. A board-certified pulmonary and critical care physician since 1999, Dr. Mehrad is an expert in lung disease and intensive care unit medicine, with a particular clinical focus on interstitial lung diseases and sarcoidosis, a group of uncommon and complex illnesses that result in inflammation and scarring of the lungs. His research lab, which has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health, studies the mechanisms of lung injury and fibrosis. He has published more than 120 research papers with more than 9,000 citations and holds two patents. Dr. Mehrad is also a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigators, an honor society for physician-scientists.