Dr. Trudy F. C. Mackay, William Neal Reynolds and Distinguished University Professor of Genetics at N.C. State University, has been honored with the O. Max Gardner Award, the highest faculty award presented by the UNC Board of Governors.

The award is presented each year to one faculty member from the UNC system's 16 campuses recognized as having "made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race." The award was presented to Mackay May 11 at the Board of Governors meeting at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Mackay studies the genetic and environmental factors affecting variation in quantitative, or complex, traits. Her groundbreaking work in the study of quantitative trait loci, or the locations in the genome where variations occur, largely focuses on the model organism Drosophila melanongaster, the fruit fly.

The award is the fifth prestigious acknowledgement of Mackay's work in the past five years. She was named AAAS Fellow in 2003, received the Genetics Society of America Medal in 2004, was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2005 and was named Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006.

Mackay is the eighth N.C. State faculty member to win the O. Max Gardner Award.

-NCSU News Services