Two Rice University professors elected AAAS fellows

Grande-Allen, Weisman honored by scientific society

Rice University professors Jane Grande-Allen and Bruce Weisman have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

AAAS fellows are elected by their peers, and Grande-Allen and Weisman are among 347 new fellows announced this week by the 120,000-member association. Fellows are selected for distinguished efforts to advance science or scientific applications.

Jane Grande-Allen

Grande-Allen, the Isabel C. Cameron Professor of Bioengineering, was elected for “distinguished contributions to the field of heart-valve biomechanics and mechanobiology, particularly for development of novel bioreactors, biomaterials platforms and extracellular matrix analysis.” She has been a member of the Rice faculty since 2003.

Grande-Allen’s research focuses on experimental methods to characterize, remodel and test the function of normal and diseased heart-valve tissues, as well as to assess their mechanical strength, growth and the development of heart-valve abnormalities. Her extensive research collaborations have impacted the development of novel surgical and tissue-engineering therapies that can be used to treat patients earlier in the disease process. New projects in her lab involve joint research with Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to apply the latest techniques in tissue engineering toward the study of gastrointestinal disease.

Bruce Weisman

Weisman, a professor of chemistry and of materials science and nanoengineering who has been a member of the Rice faculty since 1979, was elected for “pioneering research contributions in the spectroscopy and photophysics of carbon nanotubes.”

Weisman’s research centers on the optical properties of carbon nanostructures, and he is best known for the seminal discovery and interpretation of near-infrared fluorescence from single-walled carbon nanotubes. Weisman and his co-workers have explored a range of fundamental nanotube properties that underlie applications in biomedicine and engineering. Weisman is also an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and the Electrochemical Society, in which he currently serves as chair of the Nanocarbons Division. In addition, he is the founder and president of Houston-based Applied NanoFluorescence LLC, a company that makes specialized spectrofluorometers of his own design.

The 2015 AAAS Fellows will be acknowledged in the Nov. 27 issue of Science magazine and honored at a Feb. 13 ceremony at the 2016 AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C.