Honors for Fleming, Garcia and Lichtenstein

Fleming elected BPS president

Karen Fleming has been elected president of the Biophysical Society and will assume the role during the 2026 BPS Annual Meeting in San Francisco.  BPS was founded in 1958 and comprises more than 7,000 members.

Karen Fleming

Fleming is a professor of biophysics at Johns Hopkins University. Her lab uses experimental and computational methods to investigate membrane protein folding and molecular chaperones. She is an associate editor of the ASBMB's Journal of Biological Chemistry. In 2022, she won the BPS Avanti Award in Lipids for her contributions to fundamental understanding of membrane protein stability, folding, biogenesis and insertion. Her other honors include the Sharona Gordon Award, the Arne Tiselius Young Investigator Award, the Department of Defense Career Award, the Protein Society Carl Brändén Award, the Thomas E. Thompson Award and the JHU Provost’s Prize for Faculty Excellence in Diversity. She is a fellow of the ASBMB and BPS.

“I feel a distinct honor and responsibility as I prepare to take the reins and add to this global scientific community we so cherish,” Fleming said of her election. “My plans for my tenure include strengthening the public face of science to allow for educated, informed decisions to be made, to set a plan for navigating new technologies for the betterment of scientific discovery and to ensure our professional organization continues to grow and expand in support of its membership.”

Garcia wins mass spec award

The Eastern Analytical Symposium has honored Benjamin A. Garcia with its Award for Outstanding Achievements in Mass Spectrometry. He will receive an honorarium, travel expenses to EAS, a plaque and the opportunity to present his work at an EAS award symposium.

Ben Garcia

Garcia is a professor and the head of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His lab uses quantitative mass spectrometry–based proteomics to characterize modified proteins and proteomes, especially those involved in epigenetic mechanisms.

Garcia serves on the editorial board of the ASBMB journal Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. He was recently awarded the ASBMB Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award and named a fellow of the American Chemical Society. In 2020, he won the Human Proteome Organization’s Discovery in Proteomics Sciences Award for developing mass spectrometry–based experimental and computational platforms for characterizing histone posttranslational modifications.

Lichtenstein named distinguished professor

Tufts University has named Alice H. Lichtenstein a distinguished professor of nutrition science and policy. The honor recognizes senior professors who have made exceptional contributions to their disciplines, their students and the university. Candidates are recommended by school deans and endorsed by a review committee comprised of distinguished peers and emeriti faculty.

Alice Lichtenstein

Lichtenstein is a senior scientist and the director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Team at the Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging. Her research focuses on the intersection of diet and cardiometabolic health. Lichtenstein was among the first to document the detrimental effects of partially hydrogenated trans fat on blood lipids, work that contributed to the labeling and subsequent banning of partially hydrogenated fat by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Lichtenstein is an associate editor of the ASBMB's Journal of Lipid Research and the executive editor of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter. She received the Supelco Research Award from the American Oil Chemist Society and is an honorary lifetime member of the National Lipid Association. Recently, she won the Alumni Award of Merit from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.