By day he fights deadly diseases, by night heis now a member of one of the world’s most renownedmedical academies.Sherwood Casjens, a molecular biology professorfrom the U’s School of Medicine whose workhas focused primarily on viruses, was one of 51scientists elected to fellow in the American Academyof Microbiology on June 17 for his researchachievement.”It makes me feel good that they think my researchis good because it validates what I’ve beenworking on the last 30 years of my life,” Casjenssaid.Casjens will join the 2,500 fellows in the academywho represent all subspecialties of microbiology,including researchers, teachers and governmentservice workers.Casjens has been researching virus assemblyand the evolution of bacteriophages-viruses thatare parasitic to bacteria.The professor’s study of the cause of Lyme diseasehas also advanced the U’s immunology research.”It’s so much fun to discover new things thatnobody ever knew before,” Casjens said. “So I’mhappy that somebody has recognized that by lettingme into the academy.”He said being elected to fellow would not affecthis ongoing research.”My belief is just trying to understand thingson Earth is good in itself,” Casjens said. “But itoften leads to unexpected discoveries.”The American Academy of Microbiology’s missionis to recognize scientific excellence and contributeto the understanding of microbiologicalsciences.The academy is a subset of the American Societyfor Microbiology, the world’s oldest life scienceorganization, according to a written statementgiven by the academy.Casjens plans to participate in the academy byattending their sponsored scientific conferenceswhere he said experts come together and discusstopics that are relevant in today’s [email protected]