Alexandra Joyner, Ming Li, and Kenneth Offit have been elected to the 2021 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows.
Three faculty members from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) have been elected to the 2021 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows. The new class of AAAS Fellows includes 564 scientists, engineers, and innovators spanning 24 scientific disciplines worldwide who are being recognized for their scientific and socially distinguished achievements.
The AAAS is the world’s largest scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. AAAS Fellows are nominated and elected by current AAAS members in a tradition that stretches back to 1874. The new class of Fellows will be featured in the AAAS News & Notes section of Science in January 2022.
MSK is proud to announce the following faculty members as 2021 AAAS Fellows:
Alexandra Joyner, PhD, Member and Developmental Biologist at SKI, was elected for her contributions to the field of pioneering studies in developmental biology of the mammalian brain and how endogenous stem cells can contribute to neural repair. At SKI, Dr. Joyner’s lab researches how genes regulate the cell behaviors that underlie organ development, tissue repair, and cancer. Her lab uses sophisticated mouse genetic approaches to probe how cell-cell communication and cell intrinsic genetic programs determine the way in which normal cerebellar circuitry is established and regulates behaviors or are disrupted in diseases including cancer.
Ming Li, PhD, Member and Immunologist at SKI, was elected for his contributions to the field of immunology, particularly on using mouse models to study immune regulation and immunotherapy for cancer. At SKI, Dr. Li’s lab looks at the influence of the immune system on human health. A major focus for his lab is the study of how cell signaling and cell metabolism modules are rewired in the immune system using diverse immunological, genetic, biochemical, and genomic approaches, and exploiting these regulatory pathways for disease therapy including cancer immunotherapy.
Kenneth Offit, MD, Chief of MSK’s Clinical Genetics Service and the Robert and Kate Niehaus Chair in Inherited Cancer Genomics, was elected for his work in discovering genetic bases of breast, colon, and lymphoid cancers and for his research into the ethical application of new technologies and interventions for prevention and conservative management of cancer. At MSK, Dr. Offit’s research focuses on defining genetic factors that cause increased susceptibility to cancer. He and his team have also identified the most common mutation associated with an increased risk of breast and ovarian cancer among individuals of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Additionally, Dr. Offit published the first prospective series describing the outcome of preventative ovarian cancer surgery and screening in women at hereditary risk for breast and ovarian cancer.
Election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor and all AAAS Fellows are expected to meet the commonly held standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity. To see the full list of 2021 AAAS Fellows, please visit: https://www.aaas.org/page/2021-fellows.
