AAAS selects three fellows at Princeton

Three members of the Princeton University faculty have been awarded the distinction of AAAS Fellow, an honor bestowed upon members of the science society by their peers.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Susan Fiske, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, was selected for "important work on central problems of social psychology, including stereotyping and prejudice, and the application of knowledge to formation of social policy." Fiske studies how stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination are encouraged or discouraged by social relationships, such as cooperation, competition and power. She earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University and served on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, before joining the Princeton faculty in 2000. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, the editor of the Annual Review of Psychology, the co-author of more than 200 articles and the author of several books on such topics as social identity and social cognition; stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination; and managing intergroup relations in theory and implementation.

Mark Rose, a professor of molecular biology, was recognized for "distinguished contributions to cell biology, in areas such as mechanisms of cell fusion, subcellular localization and pheromone response pathways in yeast." He studies the cell biology and genetics of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, which he regards as an ideal organism for understanding the genetics and biochemistry of cell processes. He earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then spent three years at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research before coming to Princeton in 1985. He has been a Presidential Young Investigator and is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He is on the editorial board of Genetics and has published many scientific articles.

Thomas Shenk, the James A. Elkins Jr. Professor in the Life Sciences, was honored for "distinguished contributions to the field of virology." Shenk studies the human cytomegalovirus -- how it originates, develops and spreads. He examines the biochemical activities of the genes of individual viruses, and he creates mutant viruses lacking specific genes and studies their growth. He also explores the molecular basis of the disease by studying large systems of genes. Shenk earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He came to Princeton in 1984 after serving on the faculties of the University of Connecticut and the State University of New York-Stony Brook. A widely published author, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

This year 531 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a rosette pin on Feb. 20 during the AAAS annual meeting in San Diego.