EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 19, 2011) -- University of Oregon biologist Eric U. Selker, a member of the Institute of Molecular Biology, is among 212 newly elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Selker's selection puts him into one of the nation's most prestigious honorary societies and a leading center for independent policy research, based in Cambridge, Mass. Members contribute to academy studies of science and technology policy, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities, and education.

Selker earned his doctorate from Stanford University in 1981 and joined the UO faculty in 1985. He studies how eukaryote genomes function. His current research focuses on gene silencing and concentrates on mechanisms involving DNA methylation and special states of chromatin. Methylation is essential for normal growth and development in plants and animals; abnormal methylation is associated with diseases such as cancer. The research in his UO lab primarily uses an easy-to-manipulate fungus, Neurospora crassa.

Among the 2011 class of scholars, scientists, writers, artists, civic, corporate, and philanthropic leaders are winners of the Nobel, Pulitzer, and Pritzker Prizes, the Turing Award, MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, Kennedy Center Honors, Grammy, Golden Globe and Academy awards.

The new class will be inducted Oct. 1 at the academy's headquarters.

A group of scholar-patriots, including John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock, founded the academy in 1780. Since then, it has elected leading "thinkers and doers" from each generation, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. More than 250 Nobel laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners are current members.

About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.

Contact: Jim Barlow, director of science and research communications, 541-346-3481, jebarlow@uoregon.edu