Four Columbia University Medical Center Faculty Members Have Been Elected This Year To Fellowship In The American Association For The Advancement Of Science (Aaas), One Of The Worldï¾’S Oldest, Largest, And Most Prestigious Scientific Societies.

Noted Experts in Protein Trafficking, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Bioethics

NEW YORK – Four Columbia University Medical Center faculty members have been elected this year to fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the world’s oldest, largest, and most prestigious scientific societies.

The new Fellows – who represent medical specialties and departments ranging from cellular biophysics to biochemistry to neurobiology – join 467 additional inductees this year from across the nation. Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. With their election, the medical center now has 23 Fellows in the AAAS.

“We are extremely proud of our newly elected Fellows and of Columbia’s strong representation in such a highly respected organization,” said Lee Goldman, M.D., executive vice president of Columbia University and dean of the faculties of health sciences and medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. “The wide-ranging skills of our newly elected members exemplify the breadth and expertise that makes us a great institution.”

The AAAS class of 2007 includes the following Columbia University Medical Center faculty members:

Martin Chalfie, Ph.D., the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus, is a faculty member in our doctoral program in neurobiology and behavior. He was selected for contributions to the fields of neurobiology and developmental biology, particularly for dissecting pathways underlying mechanosensation, and for developing innovative methods for fluorescently marking live cells.

Ruth L. Fischbach, Ph.D., M.P.E., professor of bioethics (in psychiatry and sociomedical sciences), was selected for contributions to the field of medical ethics and for research on issues in bioethics including neuroethics, stem cell research, and advances in assisted reproductive technology.

Stephen P. Goff, Ph.D., the Higgins Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and professor of microbiology, was selected for contributions to molecular biology and virology, particularly for discovering how interacting retroviral and host molecules mediate viral propagation and can regulate signal transduction.

James E. Rothman, Ph.D., the Clyde’56 and Helen Wu Professor of Physiology (Chemical Biology) in the Department of Physiology and Cellular Biophysics, was cited for contributions to the understanding of protein trafficking, in particular the mechanisms by which proteins are transported in vesicles between intracellular organelles.

Fellows – selected by the greater AAAS membership from among its own ranks – are awarded this special honor because of their efforts to advance scientific applications that are deemed especially promising or socially distinguished. The new Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pins on Saturday, Feb. 16 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Fellows Forum during the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. This year’s AAAS Fellows also will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Oct. 26, 2007.

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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.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in pre-clinical and clinical research, in medical and health sciences education, and in patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, nurses, and dentists at the College of Physicians & Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, the College of Dental Medicine, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. www.cumc.columbia.edu