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Mackay elected
Fellow of the Royal Society
Dr. Trudy F.C. Mackay, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Genetics, has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society for her outstanding contributions to science.
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Mackay |
Mackay joins 43 other distinguished Fellows – among them three other women – in this year’s class. The Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of science, will welcome this year’s new fellows at its annual induction ceremony on July 14 in London.
Mackay is currently the only NC State faculty member among the approximately 1,400 Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society.
The award is the fourth prestigious acknowledgement of Mackay’s work in the past four years. She was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in 2003, received the Genetics Society of America Medal in 2004, and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005.
“It is fitting for Trudy Mackay to receive numerous honors for something we at NC State already know so well: She is a first-class scientist who works tirelessly to find answers to difficult – and important – questions and to bring her knowledge to life for others,” says Dr. Larry Nielsen, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at NC State. “We applaud her achievements and the recognition she has received from her peers around the globe.”
Mackay studies the genetic and environmental factors affecting variation in quantitative, or complex, traits. Her groundbreaking work in the study of quantitative trait loci, or the locations in the genome where variations occur, focuses on two model organisms – Drosophila melanongaster, the fruit fly, and Arabidopsis thaliana, mustard weed. Mackay has authored or co-authored nearly 110 refereed publications, several books – including the principal textbook in quantitative genetics – and book chapters; has been invited to present papers at nearly 20 conferences and reviews in her field of study; and has been invited to contribute to numerous scientific seminars and symposia.
Mackay is executive editor of the American office of Genetical Research and served as associate editor of Genetics for 12 years. She is also treasurer of the Genetics Society of America.
Mackay received the Alumni Outstanding Research Award from NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2000 and has served on numerous university search and nominating committees. She has also supervised 10 Ph.D. and five master’s degree recipients at NC State. She is a member of the Genetics Society of America, AAAS, Sigma XI and the Society for the Study of Evolution.
A native of Canada, Mackay earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Edinburgh.
Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the United Kingdom’s leading independent scientific body. It is currently composed of 1,316 Fellows from the United Kingdom, other Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland, as well as 135 Foreign Members. To be elected Fellow or Foreign Member, candidates undergo a rigorous peer-review election process. Some 66 Fellows and Foreign Members have won the Nobel Prize.
Posted June 9, 2006
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