BERKELEY — Eleven faculty members at the University of California, Berkeley, have been named 2008 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society.

The UC Berkeley researchers are among 486 new AAAS fellows to be named tomorrow in the Dec. 19 issue of the organization's journal, Science. The honor, bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers, recognizes distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

With this announcement, UC Berkeley now boasts 216 AAAS fellows among its faculty.

The new fellows and their citations are:

• Martin S. Banks, professor of optometry and vision science, for elucidating the operating characteristics of human vision and its development.
  
  
• Steven E. Brenner, associate professor of plant and microbial biology, for computational biology research in the area of protein and structure classification, service to professional societies, co-founding of PLoS Computational Biology, teaching and committee work.
  
  
• Jennifer A. Doudna, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology, for breakthroughs in understanding RNA and RNP three-dimensional structure, including ribozymes, the signal recognition particle and human ribosomal complexes.
  
  
• Graham R. Fleming, professor of chemistry, for his sustained and exquisite contributions to the study of ultrafast interactions among molecules in liquids, solids and solutions.
  
  
• Louise P. Fortmann, professor of society and environment, for distinguished contributions to research on agro-forestry and ecological systems through the field of rural sociology, including research improving successful collaboration between professional scientists and public communities.
  
  
• Susan Marqusee, professor of molecular and cell biology, for distinguished contributions to the fields of structural biology and biophysical chemistry, particularly protein folding, dynamics and design.
  
  
• Barbara J. Meyer, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology, for important contributions that deciphered molecular underpinnings of sex determination and dosage compensation, and mechanisms of meiotic chromosome segregation in meiosis in Caenorhabditis elegans.
  
  
• Nipam H. Patel, professor of molecular and cell biology, for distinguished contributions to dissecting the evolution of development, particularly with regard to the arthropod body plan and appendage identity.
  
  
• Elizabeth C. Theil, adjunct professor of nutritional sciences and toxicology, for pioneering contributions to bioinorganic and nucleic acid chemistry that changed accepted views, particularly for iron and oxygen in ferritin protein nanocages and mRNA regulation.
  
  
• Bin Yu, professor of statistics and of electrical engineering and computer sciences, for distinguished theoretical contributions in statistics and machine learning and important engineering science applications, and for fostering and initiating interdisciplinary work in China and the United States.
  
  
• Xiang Zhang, professor of mechanical engineering and director of the National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, for the first groundbreaking demonstration of the optical superlens, seminal contributions to metamaterials science and nanophotonics, and pioneering work in the field of plasmonic lithography.

The AAAS will present the new fellows with a gold and blue rosette pin and an official certificate on Feb. 14, 2009, at the society's annual meeting in Chicago.

The society was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals. The tradition of AAAS fellows, who are chosen by their peers, began in 1874.

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