Bill Goldman and Nancy Raab-Traub named as AAAS Fellows

The Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has announced that Bill Goldman and Nancy Raab-Traub, Professors of Microbiology & Immunology, have been selected to be 2012 AAAS Fellows. Each year, the Council considers thousands of nominations from all branches of science and selects Fellows from those whose “efforts on behalf of the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished.”

Bill Goldman was recruited to UNC in 2008 to become the Department Chair. He received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Scholar Award in Molecular Pathogenic Mycology in 1996 and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2002. Bill has served as Editor of the journal Molecular Microbiology and has also been elected to organize and chair international conferences on microbial pathogenesis, including a FASEB Summer Research Conference and a Gordon Research Conference. The AAAS is honoring Bill for “meritorious contributions to infectious disease research on important, global fungal and bacterial pathogens (Histoplasma, Bordetella, and Yersinia), and for administrative service as departmental Chair of Microbiology and Immunology.”

Nancy Raab-Traub joined the UNC faculty in 1982 and has been the Program Leader for Virology in the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1990. She was honored as the Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology in 2006 and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2009. Nancy has been a leader in organizing the International Symposium on Epstein-Barr Virus and the International Workshop on Herpesviruses, as well as other major scientific conferences. The AAAS is honoring Nancy for “her contributions as the foremost expert in the world on the molecular pathogenesis of the most common EBV malignancy, nasopharyngeal carcinoma.”

Bill and Nancy will be inducted at a ceremony in Vancouver in February 2012. AAAS Fellows selected in the past include Microbiology & Immunology joint faculty members Jeff Dangl, Stan Lemon, Joe Pagano, and Ron Swanstrom.