VCU news

Jason Carlyon, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, has been elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology.

The academy, the honorific leadership group of the American Society for Microbiology, recognizes scientists for outstanding contributions through its fellows, who are relied on for authoritative advice and insight on critical issues in microbiology.

“Election to the American Academy of Microbiology is a mark of distinction and acknowledges excellence, originality and leadership in the microbiological sciences. I am honored and humbled by this recognition by my peers,” Carlyon said. “I share this award with the students, postdoctoral fellows and technicians that I’ve trained and the investigators with whom I’ve collaborated.”

The American Academy of Microbiology fellows are elected annually through a selective peer-review process based on scientific achievement and contributions that have advanced microbiology.

Carlyon’s laboratory studies the infection processes of two bacterial pathogens that cause the emerging and potentially fatal diseases, human granulocytic anaplasmosis and scrub typhus. Understanding these mechanisms could lead to the development of novel means for preventing and treating these and other diseases.

The American Academy of Microbiology fellows are elected annually through a selective peer-review process based on scientific achievement and contributions that have advanced microbiology.

Carlyon was nominated for the fellowship by Michael Donnenberg, M.D., a professor in the VCU Department of Internal Medicine and senior associate dean for research and research training. Donnenberg has been an AAM fellow since 2007.

“Dr. Carlyon has mentored a dozen doctoral students and a dozen post-doctoral fellows. Clearly, Dr. Carlyon has been an influential leader in microbiology and deserves the honor of election to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology,” Donnenberg wrote in his nomination letter. “He is in great demand for lectures at meetings and other institutions.”

The organization, which this year elected 109 new fellows from around the globe, has more than 2,400 fellows involved in basic and applied research, teaching, public health, industry and government.