Yeh Named State Department Jefferson Fellow

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- John Yeh, M.D., an internationally recognized reproductive endocrinologist who is professor and chair of the Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, is one of eight individuals selected to be 2007-08 Jefferson Science Fellows.

The Jefferson Science Fellows program was initiated by the U.S. Department of State in 2003 in an effort to establish a new model for engaging American science, technology and engineering academicians in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. Yeh will be the first physician-scientist to serve as a Jefferson Fellow.

As a fellow, he will work full-time in either the State Department or the U.S. Agency for International Development, providing up-to-date expertise on issues that routinely impact State Department policy decisions.

"I am gratified that the University at Buffalo, through Provost Satish Tripathi and David Dunn, vice president for health affairs, nominated me for this significant honor," said Yeh. "I hope to represent UB to the best of my abilities in Washington this next year."

The Jefferson Science Fellows program is administered by the National Academies (comprised of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council) and supported through a public-private partnership involving universities, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation and the State Department.

Tenured academic scientists and engineers from U.S. colleges and universities are eligible for selection to be fellows. Following their one-year assignment, fellows remain available as consultants after returning to their academic careers.

Yeh's areas of expertise are reproductive aging of the ovary, molecular biology of ovarian corpus luteum regression (the corpus luteum produces hormones that prepare the uterine lining for implantation by the fertilized egg) and biomarkers of damage that chemotherapy inflicts on ovaries.

He has authored or co-authored more than 200 journal articles, book chapters, letters and conference proceedings. The UB Department of Gynecology-Obstetrics, with 36 residents, has one of the largest residency programs in the United States, and has an active research agenda. Department faculty published 35 scientific manuscripts and conference proceedings in 2006.

Yeh holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University and earned his medical degree from the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. He did his residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and completed a fellowship in fertility and reproductive endocrinology at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He joined the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1987.

Yeh taught and conducted research in reproductive endocrinology at the medical school before leaving in 1997 to become professor and vice chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota. He was appointed to his current position at UB in 2000.

Yeh's group of fellows includes two elected members of the National Academies -- from University of Colorado at Boulder and Dartmouth College -- plus faculty from the University of Florida, Virginia Commonwealth University, Colorado State University, Cornell University and a second scientist from University of Colorado at Boulder.

Following his Jefferson Fellowship year, Yeh will return to UB but will remain available to the State Department for short-term projects during the subsequent five years.

The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, the largest and most comprehensive campus in the State University of New York. The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is one of five schools that constitute UB's Academic Health Center. UB's more than 27,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities.