The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected several University of Minnesota faculty members to their 2012 list of new Fellows. AAAS Fellowships recognize outstanding efforts to advance science or its applications. Fellows are chosen by their peers. Three of the new AAAS Fellows, Carston Wagner (Medicinal Chemistry), Renata Wentzcovitch (MSI Fellow; Chemical Engineering and Materials Science), and Robin Wright (Associate Dean, College of Biological Sciences; Genetics, Cell Biology, and Development) are MSI Principal Investigators.
Professor Wagner was elected to the AAAS’s Section on Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research involves drug design and delivery, including the design and development of chemically assembled protein nanostructures. MSI supports this work with resources that allow the Wagner group to design and model protein-protein interfaces.
Professor Wentzcovitch was elected to the Section on Physics for her contributions to theory and simulations of materials at high pressures and temperatures. She uses the supercomputers for this research, which has implications for our understanding of planetary composition. The Wentzcovitch group’s MSI research has also advanced software for distributed computing over the internet.
Associate Dean Wright was elected to the Section of Biological Sciences in recognition of her contributions to academic administration and education. She is using MSI resources to help analyze and understand data about student performance in her college.
The University News Service has published a story with a complete list of the University faculty who are on the 2012 list of AAAS Fellows.