OLYMPIA, Wash. – Four Washington State University faculty have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences and two others were chosen to serve on the academy’s leadership board in 2018.
New members are accepted in recognition of their outstanding record of scientific achievement and willingness to work on behalf of the academy in bringing the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.
The four new WSU members are:
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John A. Browse
Professor of biochemistry and plant sciences, WSU Pullman
Browse has made sustained and groundbreaking discoveries over the course of his 40 years as a plant lipid biochemist. He is internationally recognized for developing creative approaches to identify and characterize genes that control the biosynthesis of membrane and storage lipids.
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Hans P.A. Van Dongen
Professor of medicine at WSU’s Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, and director of the Sleep and Performance Research Center, WSU Spokane
Van Dongen is one of the pre-eminent sleep researchers in the world and has built a state-of-the-art, internationally known facility from the ground up. The vast breadth of his work has had both immediate public health impact and has elucidated the physiology of sleep and its influence on human performance.
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Timothy Alan Kohler
Regents Professor of anthropology, WSU Pullman
Kohler is an eminent archaeologist and evolutionary anthropologist specializing in quantitative analyses of prehistoric behavior set in climatically accurate paleoenvironments. He is well known for his work on cooperative behaviors, wealth inequalities and their consequences, and models of pre-Hispanic agricultural productivity at high spatial and temporal resolution in the U.S. Southwest.
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Yuehe Lin
Professor of mechanical and materials engineering at WSU Pullman, and a laboratory fellow at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Lin is recognized for his leadership and contributions to the fields of bioengineering and biomedical nanotechnology. He is a leader in the development of nanomaterials, BioMEMS and nanobioelectronic devices for disease diagnosis and drug delivery.
The two WSU faculty elected to serve on the academy’s board are:
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John Roll
Professor and vice dean for research, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, WSU Spokane
Roll’s research has focused on human behavioral pharmacology, the development and refinement of behavioral interventions for addiction and other psychiatric disorders, as well as technology transfer issues.
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Michael (Mick) Smerdon
Regents Professor of biochemistry and biophysics, WSU Pullman
Smerdon has been elected a Washington State Academy of Sciences board member for a second term. His research focuses on DNA damage and repair in eukaryotes, chromatin structure and function, and cancer prevention and treatment.
The WSU faculty are among 29 new members elected to the WSAS, bringing the total number of academy members to 286. They will be inducted during the academy’s 11th annual symposium Sept. 13 at the Seattle Museum of Flight.
Contact:
- Will Ferguson, WSU News & Media Relations, 509-335-8798, will.ferguson@wsu.edu
