three prominent texas a&m university former students from the college of science have earned selection by the college for its highest alumni honor induction into its academy of distinguished former students dr gregory n fuller md class of 1976 of houston; dr james j lalonde class of 1987 of san mateo calif; and dr carl d mcafee class of 1990 of kennedale texas will be recognized friday (apr 1) for their achievements and contributions to their professions community and causes as part of the colleges spring recognition and awards dinner to be held at pebble creek country club in college station the academy was established in 1996 to recognize aggies who have brought honor to their alma mater and professions through outstanding leadership in mathematics statistics the sciences and medicine fuller lalonde and mcafee join a prestigious list of 65 previous honorees distinguished for their innovation merit and records of professional and personal accomplishment because the 2020 and 2021 spring recognition events were canceled due to the covid-19 pandemic texas a&m science also will be celebrating its two previous adfs classes: dr thomas f miller iii class of 2000 of pasadena calif (2020) and dr katherine kathy ensor 86 class of 1986 of houston; brig gen (ret) james a mobley md class of 1969 of portland texas; and dr robert o williams iii class of 1979 of austin (2021) in addition the college will recognize its current scholarship recipients along with all of the donors who have established new endowed gifts within the colleges five departments during the past three years fuller received his bachelor of science in zoology from texas a&m as a proud member of the centennial class of 1976 he earned his phd in neuroscience from the university of texas md anderson ut health graduate school of biomedical sciences at houston in 1983 as well as his doctor of medicine from baylor college of medicine in 1987 he completed an anatomic pathology residency and a neuropathology fellowship at duke university (1987-1992) with board certification awarded in in both subspecialties from the american board of pathology in 1994 fuller joined the faculty of the university of texas md anderson cancer center in 1992 and rose through the ranks to become head of the section of neuropathy in 1998 and a tenured professor in the department of pathology in 2003 he currently is the chief neuropathologist at md anderson cancer center and the deputy chair of the department of anatomical pathology at md anderson fuller is actively engaged in patient care as a brain tumor diagnosis expert while also leading an active research program centered on the molecular classification of brain tumors among his past accomplishments are the first application of transcriptome profiling and tissue microarray phenotyping to the investigation of the pathobiology and molecular sub-classification of diffuse gliomas with dr wei zhang for which he received the 2000 lucian j rubinstein award; early investigation of the regulatory role of rest/nrsf a transcriptional repressor of neuronal differentiation genes in medulloblastoma oncogenesis with dr sadhan majumder; and the first glioma modeling studies on controlled in vivo oncogene expression using a combined transgenic/somatic gene transfer rcas/tva system with dr eric holland fuller is an editorial board member of 10 scientific journals and was president of the united states and canadian academy of pathology in 2011-2012 he has published 384 peer-reviewed research papers with an h-index of 75 (scopus database) / 89 (google scholar) and his additional publications include 64 book chapters and two textbooks practical review of neuropathology and genomic and molecular neuro-oncology he is a member of the world health organization (who) working groups that created the who 2007 4th edition of classification of tumors of the central nervous system the who 2016 revised 4th edition of the classification and most recently the newly released 5th edition of the cns tumor classification (who cns 2021) in addition he conducts a twice-a-month virtual didactic series the integrative diagnostic medicine case conference stressing the importance of preoperative imaging studies and the integration of data from all clinical and diagnostic spheres including genomic alteration signature to arrive at a precise disease diagnosis upon which the efficacious treatment of all brain tumors depends in the current era of precision medicine fullers career honors include the shields warren lectureship award from harvard universitys beth israel deaconess medical center (2015) the harlan j spjut distinguished pathologist award from the houston society of clinical pathologists (2016) the harvey goldman master teacher award from the united states and canadian academy of pathology (2020) and the joseph c eggleston visiting professorship award from johns hopkins university (2021) dating back to undergraduate and graduate school dr fuller has been excelling in everything he does said dr r patrick clayton 11 senior manager of business development and competitive intelligence for hummingbird bioscience and a 2011 texas a&m molecular and cell biology graduate i think he might argue his most important position is as a member of the who classification of tumors of the central nervous system working group as part of the who team he helps write the book influencing clinical practice across the world for diagnosing and staging brain tumors truly leading in the field of brain cancer treatment in addition he has helped train hundreds of graduate students medical students and clinicians i cannot begin to tell you the amount of time and effort he has spent informally mentoring speaking to and influencing young scientists including myself he is active in his community and works to help those that he can including international orphan organizations dr fuller is a true pioneer in his field and a truly remarkable person professionally and personally lalonde received his phd in organic chemistry from texas a&m in 1987 under the mentorship of texas a&m chemist dr david e bergbreiter for the next two years he continued to explore biocatalysis as a postdoctoral researcher within then-texas a&m chemist dr chi-huey wongs group those early experiences in aggieland proved to be the catalyst for what since has blossomed into a pioneering three-decade career in enzyme engineering and biocatalysis that has revolutionized a host of industries and processes including chemical production protein engineering and drug discovery and development after initial stints with vista chemical in austin (1989-1993) and altus biologics in cambridge mass (1993-2004) lalonde hit his career stride with redwood city calif-based codexis inc which he joined in 2004 as director of biocatalysis and chemical development during his next 15 years as vice president/senior vice president of research and development he built a powerhouse r&d organization focused on the engineering and commercialization of novel enzymes for biocatalysis oral enzyme replacement therapies food and nutrition and molecular diagnostics lalondes codexis team developed routes to more than 25 pharmaceutical actives leading to such commercial blockbuster drugs as atorvastatin (lipitor®) sitagliptin (januvia®) simvastatin (zocor®) sacubitril (entresto®) montelukast (singulair®) and dolutegravir (tivicay®) along with three related us presidential green chemistry awards for their efficient manufacture he also led development for the best-in-class codeevolver® protein engineering technology platform combining big data machine learning protein modeling high throughput expression and assay and next-generation sequencing to create enzymes for major drug companies such as merck novartis and gsk lalonde also was the principal investigator for a us department of energy arpa-e-funded project that engineered an enzyme for carbon capture from flue gas at coal-fired power generation plants establishing the standard approach to enzyme-directed evolution in 2019 lalonde moved to inscripta inc to support fundraising and commercialization of automated high throughput genome engineering using their intellectual property based on crispr technology microfluidics instrumentation and machine-learning-based software at present lalonde serves as a consultant and senior scientific advisor for several synthetic biology start-ups helping them with fundraising (more than $300 million combined and counting) and in establishing top-performing r&d organizations to date lalonde has led the hiring and training of more than 250 scientists and engineers many of whom also have become r&d leaders while producing more than 400 patents and publications in collaboration with his teams clearly dr james lalonde has had a stellar career bergbreiter said there can be no question that his leadership creativity and innovation have had a major impact on the broad areas of biocatalysis and green chemistry the technology he and his groups developed has had a major impact on the pharmaceutical and process chemistry enterprise in the united states he is the most impactful phd graduate ive had the pleasure to mentor and i think it is reasonable to say he is one of the most impactful phd graduates to come out the chemistry department in the 40-plus years ive been here i think he is an outstanding candidate for recognition as a college of science distinguished alumnus mcafee received his phd in analytical chemistry from texas a&m in 1990 under the mentorship of longtime texas a&m chemist and former department head dr emile a schweikert after earning his bachelors degree in chemistry from harding university in 1985 as a student mcafee spent time working on applications of field ion microscopy and time-of-flight mass spectrometry at the prestigious fritz-haber institute der max planck gesselschaft in berlin as well as on applications of atomic absorption of precious metals at us borax mcafee began his independent career as a project leader in polyurethane applications development at the dow chemical company from 1989 to 1994 then worked two years as a technical director at chase elastomer corporation before starting his own company mcafee consulting llc in late 1996 as the underpinning of a slate of professional technical chemical and analytical services outlined at wwwprochemistcom during the past quarter century mcafee consulting and mcafee consulting labs have worked with numerous clients including pfizer halliburton goodyear and remco while delivering designed experiment training an interest mcafee initially developed while at dow for additional customers such as dow general electric and coca-cola mcafees specific areas of expertise include analytical chemistry polymer development thermoplastic elastomers nanotechnology and application development in addition to earning several patents and publishing numerous papers based on his work mcafee has participated in the development of multiple products that have impacted national economic environmental and national security sectors ranging from railroad ties constructed from a composite of recycled plastic and tires that lasts 50 years to shipping pallets made from recycled plastic to polymer bullet casings that weigh 30 percent less than standard brass casings mcafee also currently serves as vice president of technology for efg polymers and his present and past service includes additional positions on various boards of directors and advisory boards he previously was an adjunct professor of chemistry and materials science at the university of texas at arlington from 1997 to 2003 dr mcafee has made significant contributions to his profession and has already made a significant impact in the department of chemistry said dr simon w north professor and head of texas a&m chemistry he has recently approached us to engage the graduate program by enhancing our current professional development activities and we are particularly excited about his offer to give our graduate students (and faculty) training on designed experiments finally he has also volunteered to serve as a guest lecture in courses on industrial chemistry and polymer chemistry to provide a real-world perspective i am convinced that he will provide valuable leadership in the college of science and continue to engage in numerous activities in my opinion he is an outstanding choice for the academy members of the academy of distinguished former students receive a commemorative award and have their names inscribed on a perpetual plaque included in the academy section of the college of science donor recognition wall located on the first floor of the john r blocker building for more information on the academy and its previous inductees visit https://sciencetamuedu/giving/adfs/