Gary Churchill elected as AAAS Fellow

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has elected Jackson Laboratory (JAX) Professor Gary Churchill of The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) as an AAAS Fellow, one of the nation’s highest scientific distinctions.

Churchill, who holds the Karl Gunnar Johansson Chair in computational biology at JAX, was recognized by his peers for his “distinguished contributions to computational biology and genomics, particularly in the systems genetics analysis of complex traits and disease processes.”

Churchill is a pioneer in developing genetically diverse laboratory mouse populations, known as Collaborative Cross and Diversity Outbred. This 21st-century approach to using animal models is gaining traction in the research community and revealing unprecedented insights in human biology, aging and disease, and response to drugs, environmental toxins, diet and exercise.

With his international collaborators, Churchill brings a systems approach to study the genetics of health and disease, developing new statistical methods and software for the investigation of complex disease-related traits in the mouse.

This year 443 AAAS Fellows have been named in recognition of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.