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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and The University of Hong Kong (HKU) Announce 2009 Fellows

18 Dec 2009

 

Professor Frederick C. Leung, of the School of Biological Sciences of the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has been awarded the distinction of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow. Election as a Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.

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 gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, 20 February from 8 to 10 a.m. at the AAAS Fellows Forum during the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.

This year's AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on 18 December 2009.

As part of the Section on Biological Sciences, Professor Leung was elected as an AAAS Fellow for his distinguished contributions to the field of comparative molecular endocrinology, avian genomic and viruses particularly for the molecular epidemiology and phylogenetic origin of SARS CoV.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups of the Association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the AAAS chief executive officer.

Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

The Council is the policymaking body of the Association, chaired by the AAAS president, and consisting of the members of the board of directors, the retiring section chairs, delegates from each electorate and each regional division, and two delegates from the National Association of Academies of Science.

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About HKU

Founded in 1911, HKU is Hong Kong's oldest university, with a long heritage of academic excellence and service to the community.  Today, HKU is a world-class comprehensive research-led university, with close to a hundred of its faculty ranked by the Institute for Scientific Information as being among the world's top 1% of scientists.

With a strong international outlook and a tradition of English language instruction, HKU attracts the best academic staff and the brightest students from the territory and around the world. The University is committed to nurturing talent and leaders for both the local and global community and to cultivating internationalism on campus. We strongly support international academic collaboration, and staff and student exchanges at all levels, with over 400 higher education institutions.

Media contacts:
Ms Trinni Choy Assistant Director (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office
+ 852 2859 2606
pychoy@hku.hk

 Ms Melanie Wan (Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office
+ 852 2859 2600 
 melwkwan@hku.hk

About the American Association for the Advancement of Science

AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science (http://www.sciencemag.org/) as well as Science Translational Medicine (http://www.sciencetranslationalmedicine.org/) and Science Signaling (http://www.sciencesignaling.org/). AAAS was founded in 1848, and includes some 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 (http://www.aaas.org/) 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. For the latest research news, log onto EurekAlert!, http://www.eurekalert.org/, the premier science-news Web site, a service of AAAS.