Dr. Trudy F.C. Mackay of Raleigh, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor of Genetics in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society for her outstanding contributions to science. Mackay joins 43 other distinguished Fellows - among them three other women - in this year's class. The Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of science, welcomed this year's new fellows at its annual induction ceremony on July 14 at the academy's headquarters in London. Mackay is currently the only N.C. State faculty member among the approximately 1,400 Fellows and Foreign Members of the Royal Society. The award is the fourth prestigious acknowledgement of Mackay's work in the past four years. She was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow in 2003, received the Genetics Society of America Medal in 2004 and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005. Mackay studies the genetic and environmental factors affecting variation in quantitative, or complex, traits. She has authored or co-authored nearly 110 refereed publications and several books - including the principal textbook in quantitative genetics. Mackay received the Alumni Outstanding Research Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in 2000. A native of Canada, Mackay earned bachelor's and master's degrees in biology from Dalhousie University and a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She came to N.C. State as an associate professor in 1987, was named full professor in 1993 and was named William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in 1996. Founded in 1660, the Royal Society is the United Kingdom's leading independent scientific body. Its luminaries include Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. - NCSU News Services