Dr. James Sterling is Named SLAS Fellow Member in Inaugural Class

On February 6, in Washington D.C., the Society of Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) introduced Dr. James Sterling of Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) as one of their inaugural SLAS fellow members. The SLAS Fellow Member Program recognizes SLAS’ most valued members for their contributions to the community.

From more than 30,000 members, 38 scientists were chosen for this prestigious honor. The inaugural fellow members were also celebrated at the SLAS president’s VIP reception the previous evening.

“I’m honored to be recognized in the inaugural group of the SLAS fellows,” said Sterling.

SLAS was established in 2009 by the merger of the Society for Bimolecular Sciences (SBS) and the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA). Sterling was president of ALA in 2009 at the time of the union and worked closely with colleagues to implement a merger.

According to the SLAS website, those involved in the merger “agreed that merging the organizations would significantly advance the organizations’ respective goals and, thereby, benefit individual members of both organizations and the public at large, expanding opportunities and strength.” Like the other organizing members, Sterling concurred that the merger would provide more opportunity and strength.

KGI faculty and students have derived many opportunities from SLAS and its preceding organizations. “With educational short courses, life science interest-group meetings, and two scientific publications, KGI faculty and students have benefitted from this group since our founding,” said Sterling.

“The SLAS community has been very helpful to KGI students as a resource for Team Master’s Projects (TMP) over the years because many of our corporate sponsors are SLAS members or exhibitors, including Thermo Fisher Scientific, Amgen, Beckman Coulter, Tecan, and many others,” said Sterling.

Not only has Sterling benefited from being part of SLAS, he is proud to be a member because “SLAS is a society that mirrors many of KGI’s goals by seeking to provide an environment for interdisciplinary life sciences technology development and scientific discovery,” said Sterling.

KGI, along with SLAS, celebrates Sterling for his dedication to the life sciences and his valued contributions to the scientific community.