Dr. Dan Colley named 2011 AAAS Fellow

Daniel Colley, professor of microbiology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, and director of the UGA Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases is honored for distinguished contributions to the fields of immunology and parasitology, particularly for immune responses to human schistosomiasis.

Colley has had an exemplary career in the study of immunobiology of schistosomiasis in humans. He has shown outstanding dedication to fighting chronic diseases of tropical settings.The recent awarding of an $18.7 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to study approaches and evaluate applications to combat schistosomiasis (Dan Colley is the PI) is a resounding testament to the strategic organizational abilities shown again and again by Dan, and the respect and acclaim that Dan garners from his peers studying important parasitic infections.

Dan was a Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and of Medicine at Vanderbilt University, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s parasitic diseases division for nine years and now serves as Director for the Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia. He has a sterling and prolific record of accomplishment in teaching and research; for example, he has served as the major professor for 18 successful PhD students, has delivered nearly 200 invited lectures, and has published 184 articles in peer‐reviewed journals, with an additional 57 invited book chapters or review articles.

Dan Colley has received a number of prestigious awards for high impact tropical medicine parasitology research. A few of the recent ones are the National Scientific Merit of Brazil presented in 2005 by the President of Brazil (this award is Brazil's highest scientific honor), and his election as an Honorary Fellow (2007) of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Piraja da Silva Medal from the Ministry of Health of Brazil, the Henry Baldwin Ward Medal(American Society of Parasitologists, 1981) and the Bailey K. Ashford Medal (American Society forTropical Medicine and Hygiene, 1989). Dan served as President of the American Society ofTropical Medicine and Hygiene (1992‐93), and he has served on numerous journal editorial boards and on many advisory committees and grant review panels for governments and foundations. Not only has Dan been prolific in his research field via publishing and mentoring others, but he has also organized workshops and directed/convened task forces and conferences within his research field.

Dan currently directs a cross‐college, multi‐disciplinary center of 19 investigators at the University of Georgia (UGA) who pursue a variety of research areas centered on parasitic infections. Dan is a very popular seminar speaker around the globe, having delivered more than190 invited extramural seminars, symposium, workshop, or conference presentations. He has worked tirelessly in collaborative studies on the immunology of human parasitic infections in Brazil, the West Indies, Egypt and Kenya.

For more on Dan’s research, see his website at: http://www.uga.edu/mib/people/colley.htm