Two OU Researchers Elected to Prestigious National Academy of Sciences

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OKLAHOMA CITY AND NORMAN – Two University of Oklahoma researchers, Rodney Tweten, Ph.D., and Jizhong “Joe” Zhou, Ph.D., have been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. OU is the only university in Oklahoma with representation in the organization, and this marks the first time two OU faculty members have been elected in the same year.

“The election of Dr. Tweten and Dr. Zhou to the National Academy of Sciences is an extraordinary honor that places them among the most influential scientific minds of our time,” said OU President Joseph Harroz Jr. “This momentous achievement is a testament to their pioneering research and unwavering pursuit of knowledge, and it speaks volumes about the strength and stature of the research enterprise at the University of Oklahoma.”

Rodney Tweten

Tweten is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the OU College of Medicine. His 40-year career with the college has focused on bacterial toxins and virulence factors in human diseases, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, which causes pneumonia.

Tweten developed a vaccine candidate to provide broad protection against pneumonia, and it was tested in a Phase 1 clinical trial beginning in 2023. In preclinical studies, the vaccine appeared to protect against most of the approximately 90 known variants of streptococcal pneumonia.

More recently, his laboratory has focused on a genus of bacteria called Bacteroides, which constitutes nearly 50% of the microbes living in the intestines. The bacteria are also fierce protectors of their own turf. They produce proteins called cholesterol-dependent cytolysin-like (CDCL) toxins that punch holes in rival bacteria. Tweten is studying CDCLs for their potential to kill the cells of deadly diseases.

In his four decades at the OU College of Medicine, Tweten has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health. He is one of only a handful of OU College of Medicine researchers to receive an NIH MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award, which provides long-term funding to superior researchers. He has published widely, including more than 20 publications in high-impact journals.

He is a George Lynn Cross Professor of Research, a President’s Associates Presidential Professor, and holds the Joseph J. Ferretti Endowed Chair. Last month, he received the inaugural Stanton L. Young Excellence in Research Award for his innovation and scientific rigor. He is also a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Jizhong “Joe” Zhou

Zhou is the director of OU’s Institute for Environmental Genomics, a George Lynn Cross Research Professor and Presidential Professor in the School of Biological Sciences, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences. He holds positions in the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science and the School of Computer Science, both in the Gallogly College of Engineering, and he is a Visiting Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory.

Zhou is an international leader in microbial ecology, renowned for his discoveries of microbial feedback responses to climate change and environmental contamination, seminal contributions to microbial theoretical ecology, and pioneering advances in metagenomic and computational technologies. His work has been instrumental to the revolution of contemporary microbial ecology.

Zhou’s achievements in microbial ecology are recognized internationally. He has published approximately 700 papers, including more than 50 in prestigious journals such as Science, Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He ranks among the top 0.1% of the world’s most highly cited researchers, among the top 25 in ecology and evolution, and the top 38 in microbiology worldwide, and he is among the 2021 Reuters List of World’s Top 1,000 Climate Scientists.

For his contributions to microbial ecology, Zhou has been recognized with a number of awards. He received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the president of the United States in 2001, the highest honor for young scientists and engineers in the United States. He received U.S. Congressional recognition with the 2014 Department of Energy’s Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award. In 2019, he received the American Society of Microbiology Award for Environmental Research. More recently, he received the 2022 Science Research Award from the Soil Science Society of America for outstanding research contributions in soil science.

Zhou mentors a myriad of students, postdoctoral students and visiting scientists, and he established the Cindy and Jizhong Zhou Graduate Student/Post-doctorate Travel Award in Environmental Science and Technology Fellowship at OU. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a foreign member of Academia Europaea, and a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Ecological Society of Ecology, International Water Association, Soil Science Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.