Washington, D.C.- In February, the American Academy of Microbiology (the Academy) elected 63 new fellows to the Class of 2026. Fellows of the Academy, the honorific leadership group and scientific think tank within the American Society for Microbiology, are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process based on their records of scientific achievement and original contributions that have advanced microbiology.
Over the last 50 years, more than 2,700 distinguished scientists have been elected to the Academy, representing all subspecialties of the microbial sciences. This year, the Academy received 145 nominations for fellowships from across the globe. The 63 newly elected fellows hail from 14 countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, China (Mainland), Czech Republic, Denmark, Israel, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
The 2026 Academy Fellows are:
- Alison Criss, Ph.D., University of Virginia School of Medicine.
- Andrew Patterson, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University.
- Benjamin Gewurz, M.D., Ph.D., Mass General Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
- Birgit Scharf, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
- Brenda Wingfield, Ph.D., Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria.
- Çagla Tükel, Ph.D., Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine.
- J. Cameron Thrash, Ph.D., University of Southern California.
- Chad Roy, Ph.D., M.S.P.H, Tulane University School of Medicine.
- Chengshu Wang, Ph.D., Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai.
- Chris Greening, Ph.D., Monash University.
- Christopher Sullivan, Ph.D., The University of Texas at Austin.
- Debbie Lindell, Ph.D., Technion-Israel Institute of Technology.
- Dena Lyras, Ph.D., Monash University.
- Dirk Schnappinger, Ph.D., Weill Cornell Medical College.
- Douglas Call, Ph.D., Washington State University.
- Edward Miao, M.D., Ph.D., Duke University School of Medicine.
- Emiley Eloe-Fadrosh, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- Emily Derbyshire, Ph.D., Duke University.
- Eric Pamer, M.D., The University of Chicago.
- Fengping Wang, Ph.D., Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
- Frank van de Veerdonk, M.D., Ph.D., Radboud University Medical Center.
- Helen Boucher, M.D., Tufts University School of Medicine.
- Irini Sereti, M.D., Ph.D., National Institute of Allergy and Immunology, National Institutes of Health.
- Jacob Yount, Ph.D., The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
- James Collins, Ph.D., Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard and The Wyss Institute.
- James Nataro, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, University of Virginia School of Medicine.
- Jennifer Gaddy, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
- Jieming Qu, M.D., Ph.D., Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
- Jizheng He, Ph.D., The University of Melbourne.
- John-Demian (JD) Sauer, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Madison.
- Jorge Vidal, Ph.D., University of Mississippi Medical Center.
- Juergen Richt, DVM, Ph.D., Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.
- Juliane Bubeck-Wardenburg, M.D., Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis.
- Karen Mossman, Ph.D., McMaster University.
- Kate Seib, Ph.D., Griffith University.
- Lars Dietrich, Ph.D., Columbia University.
- Lone Gram, Ph.D., Technical University of Denmark.
- Lyle Simmons, Ph.D., University of Michigan.
- Mark Heise, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine.
- Mary Jackson, Ph.D., Colorado State University.
- Mehul Suthar, Ph.D., Emory University.
- Michael Jewett, Ph.D., Stanford University.
- Michael Wingfield, Ph.D., Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, University of Pretoria.
- Michelle O'Malley, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Mitchell Kronenberg, Ph.D., La Jolla Institute for Immunology.
- Nadia Roan, Ph.D., Gladstone Infectious Disease Institute.
- Nicole Baumgarth, DVM, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
- Nitin Baliga, Ph.D., Institute for Systems Biology and University of Washington.
- Olubukola Oluranti Babalola, Ph.D., North-West University.
- Patricia Champion, Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.
- Paul Plummer, DVM, Ph.D., University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine.
- Peter Bradley, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles.
- Peter Šebo, Ph.D., Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences.
- Salomé LeibundGut-Landmann, Ph.D., University of Zürich.
- Samuel Sheppard, Ph.D., University of Oxford.
- Santiago Elena, Ph.D., Institute for Integrative Systems Biology.
- Steven Ricke, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Madison.
- Tammy Kielian, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center.
- Tian Wang, Ph.D., The University of Texas Medical Branch.
- Tom Coenye, Ph.D., Ghent University.
- Ute Römling, Ph.D., Karolinska Institutet.
- Vincent Tam, Pharm. D., University of Houston College of Pharmacy.
- Zhili He, Ph.D., Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), Sun Yat-sen University.
/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.
