Professors Jon Dobson and Yuguang “Michael” Fang have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an honor given to AAAS members by their peers for their efforts to advance science or its applications. They will share the honor with President Fuchs and Dean Abernathy.
Jon Dobson, a joint professor in the J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was honored for outstanding contributions to the development of magnetic micro- and nanoparticle-based technologies in cell engineering, regenerative medicine and gene transfection. He was the founding director the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering’s Institute for Cell Engineering and Regenerative Medicine (ICERM). His research interests are focused primarily on biomedical applications of magnetic micro- and nanoparticles and the development of instrumentation for those applications. He also develops synchrotron x-ray, magnetometry and MRI-based techniques to exploit naturally occurring magnetic iron oxides in the brain for diagnostic and mechanistic studies of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Dr. Dobson has founded two successful spin-off companies in the UK – nanoTherics and MICA BioSystems – and has 17 patents awarded or pending. In addition to the AAAS, he is a Fellow of AIMBE, the Society of Biology, the Royal Society of Medicine and the Institute of Nanotechnology.
Yuguang “Michael” Fang, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was honored for distinguished research and teaching contributions to the field of electrical and computer engineering, particularly for wireless network design and cybersecurity. He received an MS degree from Qufu Normal University, China, in 1987, and Ph.D. degrees from both Case Western Reserve University and Boston University in 1994 and 1997, respectively. He joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Florida in 2000 and has been a full professor since 2005. He received an NSF CAREER Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, 2015 IEEE Communications Society CISTC Technical Recognition Award, 2014 IEEE Communications Society WTC Recognition Award, and multiple best paper awards including one from the IEEE International Conference on Network Protocols in 2006. He received the 2010-2011 UF Doctoral Dissertation Advisor/Mentoring Award, 2011 Florida Blue Key/UF Homecoming Distinguished Faculty Award, 2009 College of Engineering Faculty Mentoring Award, and 2006-2009 UFRF Professorship. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Wireless Communications from 2009 to 2012 and is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. His areas of research interest include Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing, Network Security and Privacy, Mobile Health, Smart Grid, Online Social Networks, and tackling problems in connected things/people for improved quality in people’s lives. In addition to the AAAS, he is a Fellow of IEEE.