Three U Professors Elected as AAAS Fellows | Newswise
Newswise — University of Utah professors Hilary Coon, PhD, David Grunwald, PhD, and Chris Hill, DPhil, have been elected by the Council of the American Association for the Advancement of Science as AAAS Fellows. This prestigious lifetime honor recognizes scientists who have advanced their fields through research, leadership, or mentorship.
Hill, Grunwald, and Coon are among nearly 500 scientists, engineers, and innovators who have been elected 2025 Fellows for their scientifically and socially distinguished achievements throughout their careers.
“The election of Drs. Coon, Grunwald, and Hill reflects the lifetime of outstanding work that they have contributed to their scientific fields as researchers, leaders, and collaborators,” says Rachel Hess, MD, MS, Associate Vice President for Research at U of U Health. “They are key members of our Utah community, and we are so excited for them to receive this recognition.”
Hilary Coon
Coon, Benning Endowed Presidential Professor of psychiatry and researcher at Huntsman Mental Health Institute, studies the complex genetic and environmental factors that contribute to psychiatric conditions.
Her research currently focuses on a large population-based study of risks leading to suicide mortality which she developed over a span of two decades. This study has begun to reveal clinical, demographic, and genetic changes that are linked to suicide risk. By better identifying who’s at risk, Coon’s research opens the door to targeted interventions and new treatments to save lives. Her work has also spanned studies focused on other psychiatric conditions and complex medical disorders.
Coon attributes her achievements to the large-scale, multidisciplinary collaborations she’s fostered across institutions. “Focusing on open collaboration is really central to my identity,” she says. “Collaboration has allowed me not only to have the privilege of working with amazing scientists but also to push limits and go beyond conventional thinking—to enable creative studies integrating different aspects of health in complex landscapes of risk.”
Utah’s uniquely rich genealogical data resources are one of the invaluable assets for studying the interplay between environmental, sociological, and genetic factors, Coon adds.
Coon was elected as an AAAS Fellow “for distinguished contributions to psychiatric genetics, in particular the development and leadership of an unprecedented population-based, genetically informed comprehensive resource for the study of risks leading to suicide mortality.”
On being elected as a Fellow, Coon says, “It’s pretty amazing. It’s not really why I do things—you just want to do good work. But to have a lot of colleagues from a lot of different places recognize your work, well, that is pretty stunning.”
David Grunwald
Grunwald, professor of human genetics, was one of the first researchers to make a career out of studying zebrafish, tiny freshwater fish that have helped reveal countless facets of human biology.
“You have to understand—these embryos are beautiful,” Grunwald says. “They’re absolutely beautiful, and they grow up so quickly that you literally watch life forming before your eyes in the microscope. They are crystal clear, and you can watch as all of the tissues in the animal develop. And it turns out that all of the principles that govern formation of the animal are nearly identical to those operating in all other vertebrates, including humans.”
By studying zebrafish, Grunwald’s lab discovered aspects of human health and biology ranging from the genetic basis of skin pigmentation—which is the same between fish and humans—to the underlying mechanisms of inherited muscle weakness diseases (congenital myopathies). A focus of the lab now is to develop tools that make it very easy to use the zebrafish to study how modifications of genes can affect development, evolutionary adaptations, and disease states.
Grunwald also established a collaborative space for zebrafish biology research at the U, where newcomers to the field can learn the ropes and incoming researchers can tackle big questions. “It’s all shared resources,” he says. “It’s a place where everyone can teach each other. As a result, there are many, many collaborations, and it makes it very easy to recruit smart people here.”
Grunwald was elected as an AAAS Fellow “for distinguished contributions in understanding the development of zebrafish.”
Chris Hill
“There’s lots of ways to lead,” says Hill, distinguished professor of biochemistry. “One of them is by example, and all the others fail.”
As a research mentor and the Vice Dean of Research for the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah, Hill focuses on finding better ways to support other scientists. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing someone in the lab develop to become an independent thinker and a colleague who challenges your own assumptions and ideas and says ‘No, I think you’re wrong; I think we should do this next,’” Hill says. “Helping create the environment in which they can succeed is very rewarding.”
Hill’s scientific career has spanned topics from the biology of HIV—a collaboration that helped lead to a highly effective preventive drug—to current work exploring how insulin molecules bind their receptor. The unifying thread is a focus on structural biology: discovering the shapes and structures of biological molecules to understand how they function.
Hill describes determining the structure of a biological molecule called VPS4, which is involved in virus life cycles as well as cell division and protein sorting, as “One of the most satisfying things we’ve ever done.”
“People had been scratching their heads over how these molecules actually work,” Hill recalls. “There were all sorts of ideas out there. We determined the first structure, and when we looked at it, we immediately knew how it worked. When you can see it captured in the act of doing what it does, it all just becomes really obvious, and that’s very satisfying.”
Hill was elected as an AAAS Fellow “for distinguished contributions to the field of structural biology and exemplary leadership within the scientific community.”
Grunwald, Hill, and Coon join an esteemed group of AAAS Fellows at the U, including Amy Barrios, PhD; Nancy Songer, PhD; Thure Cerling, PhD; Vahe Bandarian, PhD; Eric W. Schmidt, PhD; Jennifer S. Shumaker-Parry, PhD; and Mario Capecchi, PhD.
This year’s cohort of fellows will be highlighted in the AAAS News & Notes section of Science in April 2026 and also celebrated at the annual Fellows Forum in Washington, DC, on May 29, 2026.