Six University of Florida professors named AAAS Fellows

January 11, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Six University of Florida professors have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 2010.

The professors — Kenneth J. Boote, Simon R. Phillpot, Eric Potsdam, Nigel Richards, Rajiv K. Singh and Linda J. Young — were recognized for their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished, the AAAS announced today.

The association named 503 Fellows this year out of an estimated 10 million members, according to its website.

Kenneth J. Boote, a professor at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, was named a Fellow for his contributions in agronomy, particularly for measuring and modeling crop responses to climate change factors of temperature and carbon dioxide.

Simon R. Phillpot, a professor and chairman of materials science and engineering, was recognized for his research using computational methods to address various important issues of materials structure and properties.

Eric Potsdam, a College of Liberal Arts and Sciences linguistics professor, was honored for contributions to syntactic theory and for broadening the range of languages that inform such theories.

Nigel Richards, a chemistry professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was recognized for his research in enzymology and biochemistry.

Rajiv K. Singh, a professor of materials science and engineering, was recognized because of his contributions in the field related to laser processing and semiconductor manufacturing.

Linda J. Young, a professor from the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Statistics department, was recognized as a Fellow for her work with the development of statistical methods in environmental, agricultural and health sciences.

The award of Fellow is a 137-year-old tradition. This year’s recipients will receive their honor at the 2011 AAAS Annual Meeting Feb. 19 in Washington, D.C. A certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin, representing science and engineering, will be awarded to the Fellows.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.