UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Royal Society is a self-governing fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists, whose self-stated purpose is to recognize, promote, and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity.
Each year, the Fellows of the Royal Society elect up to 52 new fellows and up to 10 new foreign members who have made 'a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science'.
Andrew Read studies the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases and has received international recognition for his research on how natural selection shapes the virulence of malaria and how the “unnatural” selection imposed by medicine shapes the evolution of disease-causing organisms.
At Penn State, Read is an Evan Pugh Professor (the University's highest faculty honor) of Biology and Entomology, Eberly Professor in Biotechnology, Eberly College of Science Distinguished Senior Scholar, and director of the Huck Institutes' Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics.
He is also currently leading a new interdisciplinary initiative at Penn State – the Center for Evolutionary Risk Analysis and Mitigation – aimed at finding real world solutions to resistance evolution in insects, weeds, pathogens, and cancer.
Read's other awards include Fellowships with the American Academy of Microbiology (2014), American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), Institute for Advanced Studies in Berlin (2006), and Royal Society of Edinburgh (2003), and a Scientific Medal from the Zoological Society of London (1999).
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