UF College of Veterinary Medicine Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies and professor Janet D. Robishaw, Ph.D., was elected as a Lifetime Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.
Election as an AAAS Fellow is a prestigious honor, recognizing Robishaw’s career‑long contributions to biomedical discovery and her leadership in building research and training systems that enable innovation, translation and impact on global health.
“I am deeply honored to join the AAAS Fellows,” Robishaw said. “This recognition reflects the collective nature of scientific progress, and I’m incredibly grateful to the mentors, collaborators, trainees and staff whose shared commitment to rigorous, collaborative science have made these contributions possible.”
The distinction is among the most distinguished in the scientific community and recognizes extraordinary impact and achievement across disciplines, from research, teaching and technology, to administration in academia, industry and government, to excellence in communicating and interpreting science to the public.
Robishaw’s early research made foundational contributions to the understanding of heterotrimeric G‑protein–mediated signal transduction, work initially conducted in collaboration with Alfred G. Gilman, whose discoveries in G‑protein signaling were recognized with the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Her research helped shape the molecular framework underlying signaling pathways central to physiology, pharmacology and disease, which represents the most widely targeted and therapeutically important class of druggable targets.
In addition to her scientific discoveries, Robishaw has had a significant impact on reimagining research enterprises through leadership roles spanning human and veterinary medicine.
She was appointed to her research associate deanship at the UF College of Veterinary Medicine in 2023, and is currently leading the development of a veterinary learning healthcare system that integrates clinical care, research and data‑driven innovation, which will serve as a training platform for developing 21st‑century competencies for the next generation of thought leaders in veterinary science and medicine.
Under Robishaw’s tutelage, the college strategically launched the Comparative Biomedical Sciences graduate program in fall 2025, which offers both Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees to advance the data-rich, technology-driven evolving landscape of veterinary medicine education. The program is designed to build fluency in data science as well as translational research to deliver in three key areas – a global veterinary perspective on the One Health paradigm, transdisciplinary scientific training and real-world application.
Prior to Florida, Robishaw served as senior associate dean of research at the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine, where she contributed to the development of biomedical research programs within an emerging medical school and led efforts to establish a human learning healthcare system that integrated discovery with clinical and translational research.
Robishaw joins nine other University of Florida faculty in the newest class of AAAS Lifetime Fellows and joins Roy Curtiss, Ph.D., as just the second UF CVM faculty member to hold the esteemed honor.