Maria A. Serrat, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, has been named a director of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA).
Serrat was elected to the board of directors by the members of the AAA, which includes more than 2,100 biomedical researchers and educators from across the globe. She is among five new officers elected to the 14-member board who will be installed during the AAA’s Annual Meeting at the Experimental Biology Conference in Orlando this April.
Serrat has been a member of the AAA since receiving her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from Kent State University in 2007. She completed postdoctoral training in bone elongation and in vivo cartilage imaging at Cornell University from 2008 to 2009 before joining the Marshall School of Medicine in 2009. Her National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research focuses on mechanisms of linear growth acceleration by environmental factors such as warm temperature and obesity. Serrat teaches human gross anatomy to first-year medical students and holds joint appointments in the Departments of Clinical and Translational Sciences and Orthopaedics.
In addition to presenting her research at the AAA’s annual meeting in April, Serrat will also be chairing a platform session on stem cells, tissue engineering and regeneration. She was previously recognized by the AAA with the Basmajian Award for Excellence in Teaching Gross Anatomy and Outstanding Accomplishments in Biomedical Research in 2014, as well as receiving three Young Faculty Presentation Awards (2014, 2016, 2018) and a AAA Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2008.
Serrat will serve a three-year term as director through 2022.
Originally from Sheanna Spence for Marshall University Communications.