November 24, 2003
AMES, Iowa — The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded fellowship status to 348 scientists and engineers, including three Iowa State University professors.
Harley Moon, professor emeritus of veterinary pathology; Colin Scanes, professor of animal science, and Walter Trahanovsky, professor of chemistry, all were elected by their AAAS peers for the distinction. Their selection was based upon their efforts to advance science or applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. The AAAS is the world's largest federation of scientists.
The men will be officially recognized during the Fellows Forum Saturday, Feb. 14 in Seattle, as part of the 2004 AAAS annual meeting.
Moon conducted pioneering research on E. coli bacteria in animals. He was the first scientist to describe a major pattern of E. coli lesions in the intestinal tract of animals, revealing the mechanism by which these bacteria attach to the intestinal wall and produce disease.
Moon has served on several committees and panels of the National Research Council, including the Committee on Agricultural Bioterrorism, which he chaired. He also has served on expert panels of the World Health Organization, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences.
Moon joined the faculty at Iowa State after more than 25 years service as a research veterinarian at the National Animal Disease Center, Ames. He was the center's director from 1988 to 1995. Moon was inducted into the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Science Hall of Fame in 2000. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1991.
Scanes came to Iowa State when he was appointed executive associate dean of the College of Agriculture and associate director of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station. He previously was head of the animal science department and director of the Center for Animal Damage Control at Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick.
Scanes has published eight books and served on national committees of the National Research Council, Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Department of Agriculture National Research Institute, and U.S. Department of Agriculture National Animal Genome. He has held faculty or visiting faculty positions at the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium); National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City; Leeds University (United Kingdom) and Oklahoma State University, Stillwater.
Scanes received his bachelor's of science and doctorate of science degrees from Hull University and a doctorate from the University of Wales, both in the United Kingdom. He is an honorary professor at the National Agricultural University of the Ukraine, and a fellow of the Poultry Science Association.
Trahanovsky researches the pyrolysis, or thermal reactions, of organic compounds. In addition, he studies how these reactions can be used in the synthesis of complex organic materials. Part of that work involves understanding fundamental thermal reactions of coal, coal-derived liquids and biomass, and how those findings can be adapted to create more affordable fuels and chemicals.
Trahanovsky has been active in the American Chemical Society, serving as secretary-treasurer of its organic division and as a member of its committee on professional training. He has been a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
He received his bachelor's of science degree from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa., and his doctorate from MIT, Cambridge, Mass. Trahanovsky also served as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.