Harris Lewin Named to Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry

Animal geneticist Harris Lewin, the director of the Institute for Genomic Biology and a professor and Gutgsell Endowed Chair in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois, has been elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry. He was the only American in a group of seven new foreign members elected during an annual meeting in late December.

Lewin joins the Agricultural Section of the Academy. Founded by royal charter in 1811, the Academy has worked for nearly 200 years to advance scientific knowledge in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, aquaculture, food, forestry, natural resources, bioenergy, and the environment. The Academy refers to itself as a “meeting place for the green sector” and is made up of no more than 210 Swedish members and no more than 75 foreign members.

“Harris Lewin had a bold vision of what could be accomplished with a broad interdisciplinary approach to genomic biology,” said Richard Herman, the chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “His unflagging efforts brought about the realization of this dream in the Institute for Genomic Biology, which will continue to redound to the benefit of this university and the society which it serves. This honor is a recognition of his commitment to scholarly research – he exemplifies the best of our university, and we are enormously proud of his accomplishments.”

Lewin is widely known for his research in immunogenetics and comparative mammalian genomics. His laboratory has made important discoveries on the organization of the cattle genome and the nature of chromosome evolution in mammals. Important applications arising from his work include the development of a genetic test to predict resistance of cattle to disease caused by bovine leukemia virus, the identification of a gene controlling protein levels in milk, and the first commercially available microarrays for studying the functions of thousands of cattle genes.

Lewin will receive his member letter at the Commemorative Meeting on January 28, 2008, in Stockholm.