Washington D.C.—Christopher B. Field, director of Carnegie's Department of Global Ecology, and Douglas E. Koshland, staff scientist at the Department of Embryology, have been elected AAAS Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The announcement appears in the News & Notes section of the December19, 2008 issue of Science.
The two researchers are among 486 members who have been awarded this honor for 2008, "because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications."
Field was elected "for his central role in developing global ecology, with major contributions to the global carbon cycle, climate-change impacts, and feedbacks of ecosystems to climate change." Koshland was recognized "for distinguished contributions to the field of cell biology, particularly for fundamental discoveries concerning chromosome condensation and cohesion."
"Carnegie is a small institution and we are particularly proud that two of our researchers have received the honor this year," remarked Carnegie president Richard Meserve. The first AAAS Fellows were elected in 1874. Currently, Fellows are nominated by the steering groups of the association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer.
Each steering group then reviews the nominations within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.
The 2008 Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a pin on Saturday, February 14, at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.
The Carnegie Institution for Science (www.CIW.edu) has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research since 1902. It is a private, nonprofit organization with six research departments throughout the U.S. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (www.sciencemag.org). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. The non-profit AAAS (www.aaas.org) is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, www.eurekalert.org, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.
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