TAMPA, Fla. – Nine University of South Florida faculty members, including the deans of the colleges of Engineering and Communication and Behavioral Sciences, have been named new Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The honor is one of the most prestigious among academic researchers worldwide.
The nine USF faculty to receive the honor this year are among 443 AAAS members selected as a new Fellow by their peers. The new class of Fellows brings the total of USF AAAS Fellows to 73.
“We are incredibly proud of the talented and highly-accomplished individuals from USF selected for the 2019 class of AAAS Fellows,” said Dr. Paul Sanberg, the university’s Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation & Knowledge Enterprise. “These individuals not only lead their respective fields on a national and global level, but are a guiding force here at USF as we continue to rise in the ranks of America’s great research universities.”
The new Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle. They will be celebrated by their USF colleagues at a luncheon on Feb. 19, featuring a keynote address by USF President Steven C. Currall, himself an AAAS Fellow since 2013.
The new AAAS Fellows from USF are:
Dr. Robert H. Bishop (Engineering) for pioneering research and exceptional development of spacecraft guidance and navigation systems, advancing the field of control systems, and distinguished leadership in engineering education. Dr. Bishop is dean of USF’s College of Engineering.
Robert H. Bishop, Ph.D., is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Dean of the College of Engineering. A pioneering leader in aerospace technologies and engineering, Dr. Bishop’s research over the past 40 years has made foundational and transformative advances in control systems for space craft navigation, particularly for the U.S. space program. His many achievements include participating in the development of the control system for the first Space Station, and creating a new filtering framework to improve spacecraft capability to detect and respond to changes. His more recent work has focused on developing technologies to enable precision landings. He has led several pico satellite projects with NASA, and is the author of the foundational and definitive textbook on control theory, continuously in print since 1995, and published in a dozen languages. He has been recognized with NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems Innovation Award; the Dirk Brouwer Award of the American Astronautical Society; election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Astronautical Society; the Lockheed Martin Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching; and the John Leland Atwood Award from the American Society of Engineering Education. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Texas A&M University, and a doctorate from Rice University.
Dr. Michelle Suzanne Bourgeois (Psychology) for distinguished contributions to the field of cognitive communication disorders, particularly for pioneering research and development of therapies for dementia patients and their caregivers. Dr. Bourgeois is a faculty member in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences.
Michelle S. Bourgeois, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. Dr. Bourgeois has made significant advancements investigating behavioral treatments for persons with neurogenic cognitive-communication disorders (i.e., dementia, TBI, MCI) as well as training for their caregivers. She was one of the first to discover that aging people with memory and cognition impairment do not lose their ability to read or communicate entirely. She has developed and evaluated text-based stimuli that have shown to modify a continuum of challenging behaviors. She also created and developed the innovative patient-centered intervention, Voice My Choice™ that allows persons with dementia to make reliable decisions. Bourgeois’ research has been consistently funded for nearly 40 years. She has authored or co-authored over 100 publications and has produced numerous training manuals as well as online training programs. She is a fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Gerontological Society of America, and she was recognized with the Barry Reisberg Award for Non-Pharmacologic Research, Theory and Clinical Practice in Dementia from the Hearthstone Alzheimer’s Family Foundation. Dr. Bourgeois earned her Bachelor's degree at Georgetown University, her Master's degree at the University of Washington, and her Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Robert D. Frisina (Medical Sciences) for distinguished, interdisciplinary contributions to the field of hearing science, particularly for seminal discoveries in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of age-related hearing loss. Dr. Frisina is chair of USF’s Department of Medical Engineering, a joint venture of the USF College of Engineering and the Morsani College of Medicine.
Robert D. Frisina, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Global Center for Hearing & Speech Research. He holds joint professorships in the departments of Medical Engineering, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, and Communication Sciences and Disorders, and serves as the Chair of the Medical Engineering Department and Director of Biomedical Engineering. Frisina leads the largest, longest running NIH-funded research program on Age-Related Hearing Loss (ARHL) in the U.S. and the largest study on ARHL in the world. His team’s research has produced a number of breakthroughs in the field, including the identification of molecular and neural mechanisms of ARHL; the discovery of neurodegenerative processes of ARHL as related to the aging brain; the characterization of specific genes connected to ARHL in humans and animal models; and groundbreaking developments of drug delivery options for the inner ear. He is a Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering, the Acoustical Society of America, and the American Academy of Otolaryngology (Scientific Fellow). He is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the National Academy of Inventors. Frisina holds an A.B. from Hamilton College in experimental psychology and economics, and a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the Institute for Sensory Research at Syracuse University.
Dr. Ivan Oleynik (Physics) for distinguished contributions to the field of computational materials science that led to predictions of new materials phenomena and behavior of matter at extreme conditions.
Ivan Oleynik, Ph.D., is a Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. As a computational physicist, Dr. Oleynik has made key contributions in several scientific disciplines: condensed matter physics, materials science and chemistry. Dr. Oleynik’s interdisciplinary research—at the intersection of chemistry, physics, planetary science and engineering—involves studying materials at the atomistic and electronic structure levels. He investigates how the matter responds to extreme conditions of high pressure, high temperature, and high strain rates by developing and applying new simulation methods to predict materials behavior. His work has also increased understanding of two-dimensional materials, molecular electronics and magnetic tunnel junctions, the novel systems where quantum-mechanical effects are being explored to provide new functionalities to electronic devices. Dr. Oleynik is recognized as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Vacuum Society, and was recently elected to lead the APS Topical Group on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and a Ph.D. from Institute of Chemical Physics of Russian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Julianne Serovich (Medical Sciences) for distinguished contributions to the medical sciences, particularly for the discovery and development of interventions to reduce the spread of HIV. Dr. Serovich is dean of USF’s College of Behavioral & Community Sciences.
Julianne M. Serovich, Ph.D., is Professor and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. She is nationally and internationally recognized leading authority on interventions to prevent the transmission of HIV. Dr. Serovich’s groundbreaking research examined the relationship between HIV disclosure and the sexual and mental health of HIV-positive individuals. She discovered that issues of disclosure for those living with HIV are different by gender, and revealed links between an HIV-positive individual’s disclosure of their status and subsequent psychological and behavioral changes. She was also among the very first to demonstrate that successful disclosure of HIV infection can be a key factor in reducing further transmission of HIV. As a result, she developed the first evidence-based intervention to assist adults living with HIV and their families and partners with that disclosure, and mitigate negative effects of disclosure. This intervention, which includes facilitated communication techniques on ways to disclose HIV status, is able to be customized to the specific needs of diverse groups living with HIV. Since joining USF, Dr. Serovich has also led several federal grants from NIMH, NIDA, and HRSA totaling more than $12 million. Dr. Serovich earned her bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Loyola College, and her Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Lindsey “Les” N. Shaw (Biological Sciences) for distinguished advances in understanding mechanisms of pathogenesis in drug-resistant bacteria, particularly for defining hierarchical control of disease progression in MRSA and developing antibacterial agents. Dr. Shaw is a professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology.
Lindsey N. Shaw, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology, and holds joint appointments in the departments of Infectious Disease and Global Health. Dr. Shaw’s research focuses on the pathogenic and drug resistance mechanisms of antibiotic resistant bacteria, with a primary focus on Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and the other ESKAPE pathogens. He has made significant advances in defining the regulatory processes ongoing within bacteria cells that contribute to virulence factor expression and the progression of disease. His groundbreaking discovery of secreted protease as a key mediator of MRSA pathogenic potential was a turning point in the field as it identified a key node of control that governs the infectious process. In the area of therapeutic development, Dr. Shaw was part of a team that isolated and identified a new chemical, Darwinolide, which eliminates more than 98 percent of MRSA cells growing within a biofilm. He is also among the small percentage of NIH awardees who have been a Principal Investigator on an R01 grant before the age of 36.Dr. Shaw received a B.Sc. with honors from the University of East Anglia (U.K.) and a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield (U.K.).
Dr. Paul Elliott Spector (Psychology) for distinguished contributions to industrial-organizational psychology and social science research methodology, particularly for pioneering research in counterproductive work behavior, survey design and measure development.
Paul E. Spector, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences. His pioneering work over the past nearly 45 years has developed groundbreaking new concepts, research methods, and rating scales for organizational behavior that have become the standards throughout the field. He is also considered a pivotal leader in the emerging interdisciplinary field of occupational health psychology. Dr. Spector and his colleagues (Fox and Miles) were the first to coin the phrase “counterproductive work behavior,” and published the inaugural study characterizing these behaviors. They described links between workers’ job stress and perceptions of being treated unjustly/unfairly, and ruptured the long-held concept that negative employee behavior was due to the employee’s own attitudes. Another large portion of Dr. Spector’s research focuses on improving the quality, vigor, and effectiveness of quantitative research methods and improvements to research design. His work provided evidence overturning long held assumptions about the relationships among variables within a survey, and advanced improved procedures. Dr. Spector is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the International Association of Applied Psychology, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Southern Management Association. He earned his bachelor’s, Master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of South Florida.
Dr. Lilia M. Woods (Physics) for distinguished contributions to condensed matter and materials physics, particularly for theory and predictions of thermoelectric transport mechanisms and dispersive interactions in novel materials.
Lilia M. Woods, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Woods’ research spans theoretical condensed matter physics, materials theory and simulations and real practical devices. With her team she studies the interplay between structural, electronic, mechanical, optical, and thermoelectric properties of complex materials and related devices. Her work focuses on quantum materials and their ubiquitous electromagnetic phenomena for fundamental understanding of novel light-matter effects and interactions. She also investigates materials and transport processes for sustainable and environmentally friendly methods of energy production with the potential to inspire new technological developments. Her team develops analytical models, simulations tools, and maintains strong collaborations with experimental teams. She has published numerous papers in the forefront of condensed matter physics as well as two US patents for her inventions. In 2017, Dr. Woods was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in recognition of her seminal contributions to fluctuation-induced and thermoelectric phenomena. She has also been recognized as an APS Woman Physicist of the Month and is member of the National Academy of Inventors, among other honors. Dr. Woods earned her bachelor’s degree and M.S. degree from Sofia University (Bulgaria), and her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee.
Dr. Sarah Y. Yuan (Medical Sciences) for distinguished contributions in advancing molecular pathophysiology of trauma, sepsis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes by developing paradigm-shifting theories and imaging technologies in microvascular permeability. Dr. Yuan is the chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology in the Morsani College of Medicine.
Sarah Yuan, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology in the Morsani College of Medicine where she holds the Deriso Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Yuan is an internationally recognized leader intranslational research who has made seminal contributions to the advancement in the molecular pathobiology of vascular permeability. She was the first to identify a key signaling pathway underlying the development of atherosclerosis, and her recent work has led to a paradigm shift in understanding the molecular basis of inflammatory response to trauma and infection. She has also developed a number of innovative technologies for studying microcirculation and blood/vascular cell interactions. Dr. Yuan received her M.D. and Ph.D. from the First and Second Military Medical Universities in China. She completed a surgical residency at the Trauma and Burn Center in Shanghai, a surgical research fellowship at the University of Kentucky, and postdoctoral training at Texas A&M University. Prior to joining USF, she was an Endowed Professor of Surgery and Division Chief for Surgical Research at the University of California Davis. Since 1994, Dr. Yuan’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH and she has received many awards and honors, including the prestigious Landis Award from the Microcirculatory Society, Fellow of the American Physiology Society, and elected member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.