| Media
Contact:
Dr. Linda
Hanley-Bowdoin, 919/515-6663
Dr. Michael
Purugganan, 919/515-1761
Mick Kulikowski,
News Services, 919/515-3470
Nov.
1, 2005
Two
Distinguished NC State Professors Named AAAS Fellows
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 |
|
Dr.
Linda Hanley-Bowdoin
|
Two
North Carolina State University scientists have been elected
Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science (AAAS).
Dr. Linda Hanley-Bowdoin, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished
Professor of Biochemistry and Genetics, and Dr. Michael
Purugganan, William Neal Reynolds Professor of Genetics,
are faculty members in NC State’s College of Agriculture
and Life
Sciences, and are among 376 scientists to be honored by
AAAS.
AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society,
and the
publisher of the journal Science. Each year, the AAAS
Council elects members whose efforts on behalf of the
advancement of science or its applications are scientifically
or socially distinguished. Fellows are nominated by their
peers and undergo an extensive review process.
Hanley-Bowdoin was recognized for her distinguished contributions
in providing valuable insight into basic plant mechanisms
using geminiviruses as models for plant DNA replication,
transcription and cell cycle regulation.
 |
Dr.
Michael Purugganan |
For nearly 20 years, Hanley-Bowdoin has studied geminiviruses,
destructive plant pathogens that cause severe crop losses
worldwide, and how they replicate their small DNA genomes
in plants. Her research has laid the groundwork for
understanding viral and host components involved in
geminivirus replication at a molecular level, and established
that geminiviruses induce the synthesis of host replication
machinery by reprogramming plant cell cycle and developmental
controls. Her current research uses a combination of
genomic and high-throughput technologies to characterize
plant transcriptome changes in response to viral infection,
to develop broad-based disease resistance strategies,
and to identify plant chromosomal replication origins.
Purugganan was selected for his contributions to the
field of plant molecular evolution and for studies of
functional evolution in Arabidopsis, a model
plant.
Widely acknowledged as a leading plant molecular population
geneticist, Purugganan has
made major scientific contributions to the evolutionary
genetics and ecology of plant adaptations
both in wild and domesticated crop species. A few of
his many important contributions are the
first molecular evidence that selfing in plants evolves
by positive selection; demonstration of the
importance of molecular regulatory interactions in the
evolution of life history traits; and
elucidation that the early stages of duplicate gene
evolution in genomes are driven by positive
selection.
Hanley-Bowdoin and Purugganan will be recognized at
the AAAS annual meeting in St. Louis, Mo., in February
2006.
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30 -
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Raleigh,
NC 27695
