image: Gregory Dale Kirk, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. (left) and James Berger, Ph.D.
Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Two researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have been elected 2024 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest scientific society in the world and publisher of the Science family of journals.
James Berger, Ph.D., director of the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Gregory Dale Kirk, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., vice dean for research at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, are among the 471 scientists, engineers and innovators joining the AAAS Fellows this year, based on their scientifically and socially distinguished efforts to advance science. Becoming an AAAS Fellow is considered among the highest achievements in the scientific community.
Berger, a biophysics expert, studies how the structure and mechanism of molecular machines inside cells help control DNA replication, regulate how genes make proteins, and guide the chromosomes that contain genetic information to twist, bend, fold and change shape. Berger is the Michael and Anne Hankin and Partners of Brown Advisory Professor in Scientific Innovation in the Department of Biophysics & Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In addition to directing the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences, he co-directs the Cancer Chemical and Structural Biology Program for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and serves as the interim vice dean for basic research. Berger has received numerous awards for his research, and he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.
Kirk, a professor of medicine, epidemiology and oncology, is an infectious diseases epidemiologist and academic leader at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. Kirk’s research focuses on understanding the long-term consequences of living with HIV or hepatitis. He leads epidemiologic cohorts of persons with chronic viral infections in underrepresented populations in Baltimore and international settings. He has contributed to more than 350 peer-reviewed publications, leveraging cohort data and biospecimens to advance understanding of the course of HIV/AIDS and to describe the implications of HIV/AIDS for chronic disease risks. Currently serving as vice dean for research at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Kirk previously held the role of vice chair for clinical and translational research in the Department of Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine before coming to Johns Hopkins, where he completed a preventive medicine residency and obtained his Master of Public Health and doctorate in epidemiology from the Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also completed an internal medicine residency at Georgetown University and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
To view the full list of 2024 AAAS Fellows, please visit the AAAS website.