Hahn named AAAS fellow: 2017 News: News: News & Events: Department of Biology: Indiana University Bloomington

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Hahn named AAAS fellow

Hahn named AAAS fellow

Monday, November 20, 2017

Matt Hahn. Photo by Sandee Milhouse Photography

Matthew W. Hahn—professor in the IU Bloomington Department of Biology and the IU School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering—is one of five faculty members from Indiana University named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a distinction that recognizes outstanding contributions to the progress of science and research. Also named an AAAS fellow is Adam Zlotnick, an adjunct professor of the Department of Biology and professor of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. The five faculty members' election brings the number of AAAS fellows affiliated with IU to 99.

"The breadth and depth of these five faculty members' work is a testament to Indiana University's powerful expertise and intellectual curiosity across many areas of scientific and social inquiry," IU President Michael A. McRobbie said. "Their efforts lead the conversation on subjects of vital importance to society, such as water safety, information security and the treatment of disease, as well as advance academic investigation into major questions related to our physical development as a species and the interaction of our culture and our biology."

Election as a fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. The AAAS citations of merit for Hahn and Zlotnick read as follows:

Hahn—For distinguished contributions to the field of evolutionary biology, particularly using genomics and bioinformatics to study gene-family and genome evolution, speciation, phylogenetics and population genomics.
Zlotnick—For contributions to our understanding of the biochemical basis of viral capsid assembly.

The fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the Nov. 24 issue of the journal Science.

Matthew W. Hahn

A computational biologist, Hahn leverages the enormous amount of genetic information now available to scientists because of advances in genetic sequencing technology to explore previously unanswerable questions about how organisms function and evolve.

Specifically, Hahn's research focuses on the roles of natural selection and genetic drift in shaping nucleotide, gene family and gene expression within and between species, with a focus on model systems such as flies, mosquitoes, wild tomatoes and people. The analysis of these highly complex processes requires significant expertise in high-powered computing methods.

The recipient of a Ph.D. from Duke University in 2003, Hahn is co-author on more than 110 peer-reviewed articles and two books, including a forthcoming volume in 2018. He is also the director of the Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics and the Center for Bioinformatics Research at IU Bloomington.

Adam Zlotnick

A pioneer in the study of the physics of viruses, Zlotnick focuses his research on understanding the mechanics of virus capsid assembly to combat diseases such as hepatitis B, a major cause of liver failure and liver cancer that contributes to about 1 million deaths each year.

A virus capsid is the protein "shell" of a virus that encloses its genome. Zlotnick's work aims to identify new therapies based upon the disruption of this structure using experimental drugs. His lab also has conducted research on capsid assembly of other viruses including the human papilloma virus, HIV, the polyomavirus SV40 and the plant virus CCMV.

Zlotnick is a member of the experimental and developmental therapeutics program at the IU Simon Cancer Center and a co-founder of Assembly Biosciences, a company with a clinical-stage antiviral program built on research from his lab.

The new fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold-and-blue rosette pin at the AAAS Fellows Forum on Feb. 17, during the 2018 AAAS Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas. The IU recipients are among 396 to join the AAAS this year.

The tradition of AAAS fellows began in 1874. Members may be nominated for the honor by the steering groups of the association's 24 sections, by any three fellows who are current AAAS members or by the AAAS chief executive officer.

This article was condensed from the IU news release, "Five Indiana University faculty members named AAAS fellows" by Kevin Fryling, IU Communications.