December 2015 Science Journal

Faculty
Spotlight
Andrew Read Elected
as a Fellow of the Royal
Society
Andrew
F. Read,
Evan Pugh
Professor of
Biology and
Entomology
and Eberly
Professor in
Biotechnology at Penn State,
has been elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society, the leading
academy of sciences of the
United Kingdom. The Royal
Society is a self-governing fellowship
of many of the world’s
most distinguished scientists.
The stated purpose of the society
is to recognize, promote,
and support excellence in science
and to encourage the development
and use of science
for the benefit of humanity.
Each year, the Fellows of the
Royal Society elect up to 52
new fellows and up to ten new
foreign members who have
made substantial contributions
to the improvement of knowledge
in science, engineering, or
medicine.
Read is the director of Penn
State's Center for Infectious
Disease Dynamics and is leading
Penn State’s initiative in
evolutionary risk analysis and
mitigation. He perhaps is best
known for his research on how
natural selection shapes the
virulence of malaria and how
the “unnatural” selection imposed
by medicine shapes the
evolution of disease-causing
organisms.
Read’s research is aimed at
determining what can be done
to minimize the impact on human
health and well-being of
the evolution of pathogens and
of the organisms that carry
and transmit these pathogens.
Prompted by medical and
public-health measures, this
evolution can produce adaptations
in pathogens that lead to
drug and pesticide resistance,
increased virulence and infectiousness,
and the ability to
evade formerly effective vaccines.
Read is particularly interested
in the question of how
best to treat patients so as to
minimize the evolution of resistance.
His group works mostly
on malaria, myxoma viruses
in rabbits, and cancer-causing
viruses in chickens, with new
work on hospital-acquired
infections. Read's research,
which provides an improved
understanding of pathogen evolution,
can be used to inform
public-health decisions. His research
currently is supported
by the National Institutes of
Health, National Science Foundation,
Gates Foundation, and
the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council
(UK). —Sam Sholtis
Tom Mallouk Elected
as a Member of the
National Academy of
Sciences
Thomas
Mallouk,
Evan Pugh
Professor of
Chemistry,
P h y s i c s ,
and Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology at Penn
State University, has been
elected as a member of the
National Academy of Sciences.
Election to membership in the
academy is one of the highest
honors accorded to U.S. scientists
or engineers by their
peers.
Mallouk is an inorganic
chemist who is highly regarded
for his research on nanomaterials
and their application
to a broad range of scientific
and technological problems.
He and his students showed
in 1988 that inorganic crys-
tal lattices can be grown one
layer at a time on surfaces by
wet chemical techniques. He
used this approach to make
surface structures for artificial
photosynthesis, chemical
sensing, and the separation of
left-handed and right-handed
forms of the same molecule,
which is a critical step in many
applications. In 1998, he developed
an optical screening
method for simultaneously
evaluating hundreds of catalytic
materials and used it to
discover catalysts that improve
the performance of fuel cells,
water electrolysis, and glucose
sensors. This method now is
widely used for materials discovery.
Currently, his group is
developing nanoscale materials
to address problems in photochemical
energy conversion,
energy storage, electronics,
Faculty
Promotions
Congratulations to the following
faculty members on their
recent promotions in academic
rank:
catalysis, environmental remediation,
and powered movement
on the nanometer scale.
In 2004, they introduced the
concept of polymeric “delivery
vehicles” that carry reactive
nanoparticles through tens of
meters of soil and ground water
in order to destroy pollutants.
In 2007, together with
colleague Joan Redwing,
professor of materials science
and engineering and of electrical
engineering at Penn State,
Mallouk's team fabricated the
first silicon nanowire solar
cells. In 2009, Mallouk and
his students developed the first
molecule-based solar cells that
split water into hydrogen and
oxygen with visible light. Recently,
Mallouk's lab, in collaboration
with colleagues Tony
Jun Huang, professor of engineering
science and mechanics
To professor:
Michael T. Green, chemistry
at Penn State and Ayusman
Sen, Distinguished Professor
of Chemistry at Penn State,
have developed nanomotors
that, for the first time, can be
powered and controlled inside
living cells, a breakthrough
that holds promise for new
methods for the diagnosis and
treatment of cancer and other
diseases.
The National Academy of
Sciences is a private organization
of scientists and engineers
dedicated to the furtherance of
science and its use for the general
welfare. It was established
in 1863 by a congressional act
of incorporation, signed by
Abraham Lincoln, which calls
on the academy to act as an official
adviser to the federal government,
upon request, in any
matter of science or technology.
—Sam Sholtis
Kenneth C. Keiler, biochemistry and molecular biology
Katsuhiko Murakami, biochemistry and molecular biology
Aleksandra B. Slavkovic, statistics
Mathieu P. Stienon, mathematics
Ae Ja Yee, mathematics
To associate professor:
David D. Boehr, chemistry
Tomás A. Carlo-Joglar, biology
Jason T. Wright, astronomy and astrophysics
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Penn State Eberly College of Science
SCIENCE JOURNAL December 2015 41