The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s largest general scientific societies, has named eight Yale faculty members as incoming fellows. It is Yale’s largest group of new AAAS fellows in more than a decade.
The new AAAS fellows from Yale are Roy Craig, David Hafler, Leonard Milstone, Ruth Montgomery, Thomas Near, Karla Neugebauer, William Nordhaus, and Jeffrey Townsend.
They are part of a new class of fellows that include 471 scientists, innovators, and engineers from 24 scientific disciplines who are being recognized for distinguished achievement. The fellows come from academic institutions, labs and observatories, hospitals and medical centers, museums, global corporations, nonprofits, institutes, and government agencies.
Brief bios of Yale’s new fellows follow:
Roy Craig
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Roy Craig is the Waldemar Von Zedtwitz Professor of Microbial Pathogenesis and of Immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) and director of the Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences. A member of Yale’s faculty since 1998, Craig’s research focuses on the host-pathogen interface. Using multi-disciplinary approaches his laboratory has discovered novel mechanisms that intracellular pathogens use to modulate host membrane transport pathways, which allow these pathogens to evade cell autonomous defenses and create novel organelles that permit bacterial replication.
David Hafler
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David Hafler is the William S. and Lois Stiles Edgerly Professor of Neurology and professor of immunobiology at YSM, chair of the Department of Neurology, and neurologist-in-chief at Yale New Haven Hospital. A leading expert on multiple sclerosis (MS), Hafler’s seminal work helped identify the central mechanisms underlying the likely cause of MS. His highly cited work is considered a driving force in bridging basic immunology, genetics, and neurology to better understand MS. He joined the Yale faculty in 2009.
Leonard Milstone
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Leonard Milstone is professor emeritus of dermatology and a senior research scientist in dermatology at YSM. During his wide-ranging career, he has produced key research in the discovery of interferon gamma, keratins K4 and K13, and the gene epican, a glycoprotein involved in cell adhesion and migration. In recent years, his research has looked at mutant RNA and DNA as targets for therapeutic intervention in the epidermis. He joined the Yale faculty in 1977.
Ruth Montgomery
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Ruth Montgomery is a professor of medicine at YSM, professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH), and associate dean for scientific affairs at YSM. As a leading cellular immunologist, her research identifies individual differences in immune responses that lead to divergent infection outcomes. Her lab focuses on the effects of aging and age-associated diseases on innate immunity and individual variation influencing susceptibility to West Nile, dengue, Zika, and COVID\-19 viruses.
Thomas Near
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Thomas Near is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Bingham Oceanographic Curator of Ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum. His lab uses evolutionary trees, inferred from DNA sequence data, to investigate speciation, historical biogeography, and the timing of lineage diversification — primarily for ray-finned fishes. He joined the Yale faculty in 2006.
Karla Neugebauer
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Karla Neugebauer is the R. Selden Rose Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at FAS and YSM, and professor of cell biology at YSM. She is also director of the Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine. A member of the Yale faculty since 2013, her RNA research focuses on the links between gene transcription and splicing, as well as the role of cellular sub-compartments in RNA biogenesis, using next-generation sequencing and imaging techniques.
William Nordhaus
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William Nordhaus is a Sterling Professor Emeritus and research professor of economics at FAS and professor emeritus of forestry and environmental studies at Yale School of the Environment. His research has focused on economic growth and natural resources, the economics of climate change, and the resource constraints on economic growth. In 2018, he won the Nobel Prize in economics for his work integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis. He joined the Yale faculty in 1967.
Jeffrey Townsend
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Jeffrey Townsend is the Elihu Professor of Biostatistics at YSPH and professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at FAS. A member of the Yale faculty since 2006, he created the first generally applicable quantitative theory of phylogenetic experimental design, which has enabled scientists across diverse fields to design more accurate analyses of the relationships between genes and between genomes. His work has seen applications in medicine, conservation, developmental biology, and public health, among other fields.
The incoming fellows will receive a certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin (representing science and engineering, respectively) to commemorate their election. They will be honored in Washington, D.C., in June.