Shyam S. Mohapatra teaches at University of South Florida.
An Indian American professor, Shyam S. Mohapatra, was among five University of South Florida’s leading scientific researchers who were named to the new class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest and one of its most prestigious scientific societies.
Spanning medicine, public health, and technology research, the new group of USF AAAS Fellows are among some of the university’s most accomplished faculty members, representing decades of scientific accomplishments and more than 50 patented technologies. The new designations bring the total number of AAAS Fellows among USF’s faculty to 61, according to a press release.
With this year’s new Fellows class, USF again ranks fourth among all organizations worldwide, tied with University of Florida, in the designation of new AAAS Fellows, joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Texas at Austin, and University of Wisconsin-Madison. USF and UF lead Florida universities in new AAAS Fellows selection.
This year 391 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Mohapatra was elected AAAS Fellow in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Section. His citation read: ‘For outstanding contributions in the field of pharmaceutical and health sciences, particularly for pioneering achievements in advancing biomedical nanotechnology for inflammatory diseases.’
Mohapatra is a Distinguished USF Health Professor; Director of Translational Medicine; Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Professor in the College of Pharmacy; Distinguished Professor in the USF Institute for Advanced Discovery & Innovation; and a Department of Veterans Affairs Research Career Scientist at the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital.
His research on the immunobiology of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), atrial natriuretic peptide signaling peptides and nanoparticle-mediated gene/drug delivery has helped guide the fields of inflammation, immunology, infectious disease, biotherapeutics and translational medicine.
He also founded the USF Center for Research & Education in Nanobioengineering in 2010, and has served as center director since then. In addition to AAAS, he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers (AIMBE), and American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Clinical Immunology; the National Academy of Inventors; and among the inaugural (2014) inductees of the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame. He is the recipient of the Alexander Humboldt Research Fellowship, Bonn; and the Pharmacia Allergy Research Foundation Award, Sweden. He holds 30 patents, and has published nearly 200 articles and book chapters. He earned his Ph.D. from the Australian National University; M.S. from the GB Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, India; and B.S. from Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology, India.