AMES, Iowa -- Two Iowa State University faculty have been named fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society.
Daniel Voytas, professor of genetics, development and cell biology, and Andreja Bakac, adjunct professor of chemistry and senior scientist with the Ames Laboratory, were selected for their efforts to advance science or its applications.
Voytas was cited for his important contributions to plant genomics and the study of transposable elements--small, mobile pieces of DNA that can change their chromosomal location. Widely known for his discoveries in plant genome modification, Voytas has developed new, efficient ways to introduce genes into plants and to modify plant genes.
Voytas earned his Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard Medical School and joined the faculty at Iowa State in 1992. His research has been published in the scientific journals Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, Cell, Plant Journal and several others. He holds four patents and has served as associate editor of the journal Genetics since 2003. Voytas is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, the American Society of Plant Biologists and the Genetics Society of America.
Bakac was cited for scientific discoveries of new intermediates in inorganic and organometallic reactions, leading to new understanding of mechanisms and kinetics involving bio-inorganic molecules and in catalytic reactions.
Bakac earned her Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. She joined the Ames Laboratory as an assistant scientist in 1979, and was named an Iowa State adjunct professor in 2005. Bakac has served on the editorial boards of the scientific journals Inorganic Chemistry, Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms and Dalton Transactions. She has published about 200 research publications in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Coordination Chemistry Reviews, Journal of Physical Chemistry and others. She is a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi and the Iowa Academy of Science.
A total of 449 new fellows will be honored at the AAAS annual meeting in February in San Francisco.