Four Florida State professors join prestigious ranks of AAAS fellows

The Florida State University has long been recognized internationally for the high quality of research conducted on its campus in a wide variety of academic disciplines. That stellar reputation has been reaffirmed as four Florida State professors — a biologist, a physicist and two psychologists — were elevated to the rank of fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Fellows are recognized because of their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. Election as a fellow is a high honor given to AAAS members by their peers.
 

The Florida State faculty members selected as AAAS fellows for 2011, and their award citations, are as follows:

•P. Bryant Chase, professor and chairman, Department of Biological Science, “for his distinguished contributions to muscle biology and biophysics, to interdisciplinary research including bionanotechnology, to education and mentoring, and for administration and service to the scientific community.”

•Laura Reina, professor, Department of Physics, “for her distinguished contributions to the field of theoretical high-energy physics and in particular for precise calculations of particle production at the Tevatron (a circular particle accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago) and the Large Hadron Collider (the world’s largest and highest-energy particle accelerator near Geneva, Switzerland).”

•Alan Spector, professor, Department of Psychology, and Program in Neuroscience, “for his distinguished contributions to the field of taste psychophysics … through behavioral and physiological methods.”

•Zuoxin Wang, professor, Department of Psychology and Program in Neuroscience, “for his outstanding advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of social behavior.”
“It is great to have four talented Florida State University researchers recognized by their peers as being among the best in their fields,” said Garnett S. Stokes, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “This is a terrific indicator of the high value of Florida State’s contributions to scientific research.”
 
“The fact that these researchers come from across the scientific spectrum of our campus shows the breadth of excellence that Florida State has in the sciences among its faculty members,” said Kirby Kemper, vice president for Research.
The complete list of this year’s class of 539 fellows, which includes the four Florida State researchers, will be published in the Dec. 23 issue of the journal Science. The 2011 fellows also will be recognized at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, on Feb. 18.

Chase, who came to Florida State in 2001, researches how muscles, particularly the heart, function at the cellular and molecular levels. His recent research projects have investigated proteins in the heart that control contraction in response to changes in cellular calcium level, and how disease alters those proteins. His interdisciplinary research team uses a variety of approaches, including biomechanical and structural measurements, development and use of bionanotechnology, and computational modeling to investigate normal cardiacfunction and cardiomyopathies.
 
“It is truly an honor to be recognized as an AAAS fellow for efforts throughout my career to advance science and its applications,” Chase said. “Conducting science and scientific discovery are tremendously exciting and are experiences that I enjoy sharing. Being at FSU has allowed me to foster an interdisciplinary research program in cardiovascular biology and to engage a number of talented undergraduate students in research along with graduate students and other colleagues.”
 

Reina, who joined FSU’s faculty in 1998, focuses her research on elementary particle physics, or the study of the nature of elementary particles and their interactions. She also interprets data from high-energy colliders to discover fundamental principles that might help to explain the initial evolution of the universe. What’s more, she has contributed theoretical predictions that are now used to search for new particles, such as the Higgs boson, at the Large Hadron Collider, for which preliminary evidence or absence of evidence is expected soon.
 
“It is at the same time exciting and humbling to receive this recognition,” Reina said. “The AAAS is a very broad scientific organization, and I am extremely pleased to have been selected this year to promote the image and role of physics in the advancement of society.”
 
Alan Spector, who joined Florida State’s faculty in 2007, focuses his research on understanding how taste signals are processed by the nervous system and how they affect behavior and physiology. In receiving the award, Spector acknowledged the contributions of his graduate school adviser, Florida State University psychology Professor James C. Smith; his postdoctoral mentor, Professor Harvey J. Grill of the University of Pennsylvania; and a senior colleague, Dr. Ralph Norgren of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine.
 
“I am not certain I am worthy of this honor, but I am grateful for the recognition of my research,” Spector said. “I have benefited from and continue to benefit from the collective wisdom and training from many teachers and colleagues over my years as an academic scientist. I would also be remiss if I did not acknowledge the wonderful contributions of my students, postdocs and technicians, past and present, to my research program. They have been the lifeblood of the lab, full of fresh ideas and energy. ”
 

Wang, who joined FSU’s faculty in 1998, focuses his research on the neurobiology of social behaviors. To conduct his research, he uses the socially monogamous prairie vole, a small rodent that displays a variety of social behaviors, such as mating-induced pair bonds between males and females and bi-parental care toward offspring. Over the years, data from his studies, together with those from others, have shown that neurochemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and vasopressin in the defined brain circuitry regulate the formation and expression of social behaviors displayed by prairie voles.  
 
“I am honored to be elected as a AAAS fellow,” Wang said. “This honor should go to the people in my lab, both former and current members, who put their best efforts into research. I am also grateful for the tremendous amount of support I have received from the psychology department and the neuroscience program at FSU, both of which have played significant roles in my career development and success.”
 
In addition to Chase, Reina, Spector and Wang, Florida State has 43 other faculty members who have been elected AAAS fellows. To view the list, click here.
 
Each fall, Chase and Wang co-teach a course, “Responsible Conduct in Research,” to graduate students studying neuroscience, molecular biophysics, biological science and psychology.
 
The AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society. It was founded in 1848, and includes 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 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.