Three faculty named Harvard Club of Australia fellows

Trustees of the Harvard Club of Australia (HCA) Foundation recently named Scott V. Edwards, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, as one three recipients for its 2004 Australia-Harvard Fellowship. Edwards, a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, will collaborate on comparative genomics research with Jennifer Graves, head of Australian National University’s Research School of Biological Sciences in Canberra.

In June, Edwards will begin his fellowship work, which will focus on nonavian reptiles. Making use of recent genomics resources available from his own laboratory, such as its bacterial artificial chromosome libraries of various reptiles, and the in situ hybridization and other capabilities available through the laboratory of Graves, Edwards hopes to suggest ways in which the evolution of sex chromosomes in humans differs from those in other vertebrate groups, where sex is sometimes determined by environmental cues such as temperature.

The other two winners are Charles Berul, associate professor of pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Ashley I. Bush, associate professor of psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital. Earlier this year, Berul visited Sydney to collaborate on human heart muscle disease with Michael Feneley, director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and Bush began his collaboration on Alzheimer’s disease with Colin Masters, director of the Mental Health Research Institute of Victoria.

The deadline for submitting applications for 2005 fellowships is May 31. Awards of up to $30,000 are available to senior science researchers for travel to Australia and living expenses. Visit http://www.harvard.org.au/HCAF_notice2005-1.pdf for more information.