Class
| • | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | [X] |
| | 1 | Name: | Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 107 | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1933 | | | | | | |
Dr. Ruzena Bajcsy is a pioneering researcher in machine perception, robotics and artificial intelligence. Dr. Bajcsy is the Director of CITRIS at the University of California, charged with shaping the center's vision and scientific strategy. She is also a member of the Neuroscience Institute and the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the former Director of the University of Pennsylvania's General Robotics and Active Sensory Perception Laboratory, which she founded in 1978. She has also served as the Assistant Director of the Computer Information Science and Engineering Directorate (CISE) at the NSF. She has held professorships at Penn, Slovak Technical University and the University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Bajcsy has conducted seminal research in the areas of human-centered computer control, cognitive science, robotics, computerized radiological/medical image processing and artificial vision. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, as well as the Institute of Medicine. In 2001 she was a recipient of the ACM A. Newell award, and Discover Magazine named her to its list of the 50 most important women in science in November 2002. In April 2003 she received the CRA Distinguished Service Award and in May 2003 she became a member of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. In 2020 she won the 2020 National Center for Women & Information Technology's Pioneer in Tech Award. | |
| 2 | Name: | Dr. Persi Diaconis | | | Institution: | Stanford University | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 104. Mathematics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1945 | | | | | | |
Persi Diaconis works at the interface between mathematics and statistics. He studies problems such as "how many times should a deck of cards be shuffled to mix it up?" (The answer is about seven.) Related problems are determining relaxation times for natural mixing processes in Monte Carlo sampling. His work uses probability theory, group theory and combinatorics. He also works hard at trying to make common (and mathematical) sense out of recent statistical procedures. He is well-known as a debunker of pseudo-science and through his former life as a professional magician. | |
| 3 | Name: | Dr. Charles D. Keeling | | | Institution: | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | Death Date: | June 20, 2005 | | | | | | |
Dr. Charles D. Keeling has been associated with Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, University of California, San Diego since 1956. He has been
a professor of oceanography since 1968. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania,
in April 1928, he received a B.A. degree in chemistry from the University
of Illinois in 1948 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University
in 1954. Prior to joining Scripps Institution, Dr. Keeling was a postdoctoral
fellow in geochemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
Keeling's major areas of interest include the geochemistry of carbon and
oxygen and other aspects of atmospheric chemistry, with an emphasis on the
carbon cycle in nature. He has promoted the study of complex relationships
between the carbon cycle and changes in climate. The Keeling record of the
increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii and at
other "pristine air" locations, represents an important time series data for
the study of global change. Keeling also has studied the role of oceans in
modulating the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide by carrying out
extremely accurate measurements of carbon dissolved in seawater.
Keeling and his colleagues also have undertaken significant efforts in global
carbon cycle modeling. As an example, in 1996, Keeling, with his colleagues at
Scripps, showed that the amplitude of the Northern Hemispheric seasonal cycle
in atmospheric carbon dioxide has been increasing, providing independent
support for the conclusion that the growing season in beginning earlier,
perhaps in response to global warming.
While at Scripps, Keeling has been a Guggenheim Fellow at the Meteorological
Institute, University of Stockholm, Sweden (1961-62), and a guest professor
at both the Second Physical Institute of the University of Heidelberg, Germany
(1969-70), and the Physical Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland
(1979-80).
In 2002, President George W. Bush presented Keeling with the National Medal of
Science, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in scientific
research.
He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American
Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences,
and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is the recipient of the
1980 Second Half Century Award of the American Meteorology Society and the Blue
Planet Prize awarded in 1993 by the Science Council of Japan. He received a
Special Achievement Award in 1997, presented by Vice President, Albert Gore,
the National Medal of Science in 2001, presented by President George Bush, and
the Tyler Prize for contributions to global environment science in 2005. | |
| 4 | Name: | Dr. Robert P. Kirshner | | | Institution: | Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory; Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1949 | | | | | | |
Robert Kirshner is best known for his observational studies of supernovae, which helped provide the scientific grounding for the teams investigating these extraordinarily distant lighthouses, and this in turn led to the surprising conclusion that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, probably the most significant cosmological discovery of the past decade. His previous work included important research on the large scale distribution of galaxies. A lively and entertaining lecturer, he teaches Harvard University's largest core course in the mathematical sciences. When applying for graduate school at Harvard, he was denied admission on the grounds that he was interested in too many things to be serious about astronomy; he later became Chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department, and he is president of the American Astronomical Society. Dr. Kirshner presently holds the titles of Clowes Professor of Science at Harvard University and Master of Quincy House at Harvard College. He received his Ph.D. in 1976 from the California Institute of Technology and was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1992 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1998. In 2012 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received the James Craig Watson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 and the Wolf Prize in 2015. | |
| 5 | Name: | Dr. Margaret Galland Kivelson | | | Institution: | University of California, Los Angeles; University of Michigan | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | | | | |
Margaret Kivelson is Distinguished Professor of Space Physics in the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics (Acting Director in 1999-2000) and the Department of Earth and Space Sciences (Chair from 1984-1987) at UCLA, where she has served on the faculty since 1975. Her research interests are in the areas of solar terrestrial physics and planetary science. She is known for work on the particles and magnetic fields in the surroundings of Earth and Jupiter and for investigations of properties of Jupiter's Galilean moons. She was the Principal Investigator for the Magnetometer on the Galileo Orbiter that acquired data in Jupiter's magnetosphere for eight years and is a Co-Investigator on various other investigations including the FGM (magnetometer) of the Cluster mission. Dr. Kivelson obtained her A.B. in 1950 and her A.M. and Ph.D. in 1952 and 1957, respectively, from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship (1973-74), the Radcliffe Graduate Society Medal (1983), the Harvard University 350th Anniversary Alumni Medal (1986), several NASA Group Achievement Awards, and memberships in the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. She is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Physical Society, the International Academy of Astronautics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was awarded the Alfvén Medal of the European Geophysical Union and the Fleming Medal of the American Geophysical Union in 2005. She has served on numerous advisory committees, including the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council, and is a Council Member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Kivelson has published more than 300 research papers and is co-editor of a widely used textbook on space physics. She has presented numerous seminars and invited talks at scientific conferences. In addition, she lectures on space research to K-12 students and other general audiences. She has been active in efforts to identify the barriers faced by women as students, faculty and practitioners of the physical sciences and to improve the environment in which they function. | |
| 6 | Name: | Dr. Jerry M. Melillo | | | Institution: | The Ecosystems Center, Marine Biological Laboratory | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Jerry Melillo is an ecologist/biogeochemist and was the Co-Director of The Ecosystem Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He is an alumnus of Wesleyan (BA, MAT) and Yale (MFS, Ph.D.). Dr. Melillo has been at the MBL for 30 years and has become a prominent figure in science policy, recognized internationally for his research on global warming and climate change. He is interested in how human activities are altering the biology and chemistry of terrestrial ecosystems. His studies take him around the world, from the tropics of Brazil to the Swedish sub-Arctic. Melillo studies carbon and nitrogen cycling in terrestrial ecosystems by using a combination of large field experiments and computer simulation models. Both are critical to understanding how climate change might affect our world in the future. Together with his colleagues, Melillo is presently conducting a soil-warming experiment at the Harvard Forest in western Massachusetts and a carbon dioxide enrichment and plant and soil warming experiment at the Abisko Research Station in northern Sweden to study the effects of global warming on soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, plant growth, and potential feedbacks to the climate system. In addition to field research, Melillo uses computer simulation models to help answer the many "what if" questions related to the effects of future climate change. The models not only synthesize and integrate a lot of information, but they help give rise to new field experiments. Melillo and his colleagues are using the results of their field experiments and their computer simulation models to explore the consequences of a range of stresses, such as climate change, ozone pollution and acid rain, on the forests of New England. How will forest growth be affected? Might some tree species do better than others, such that the composition of our forests will change? Will the quality of water draining from the affected forests be diminished? Melillo and other Ecosystem Center scientists are collaborating with Chinese researchers to explore similar questions about the forests of China. Working with Brazilian scientists, Melillo and other Center scientists are studying how the clearing of rainforests of the Amazon Basin for pastures and soybean fields affects the rate at which climate-changing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are emitted to the atmosphere. They are also studying the links between land-cover and land-use changes, stream water quality, and biodiversity in the streams. For the last 10 years, Melillo and Ecosystems Center staff have collaborated with economists, atmospheric chemists and physicists, and ocean scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to build a large model that couples the land, oceans, and atmosphere with a projected set of economic futures. Melillo's group focuses on the terrestrial portion of the model. In the late 1990s, he temporarily left the MBL to serve in Washington as the Associate Director for Environment in President Clinton's Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he directed programs on environmental monitoring of ecosystem health and advised the administration on natural resource and pollution issues. Science education has long been of interest to Melillo. In 1997, he founded the Semester in Environmental Science (SES) at the Marine Biological Laboratory. SES is a 15-week program in environmental science offered each fall to students enrolled in colleges participating in the MBL Consortium in Environmental Science. Recently, Melillo headed an MBL team to develop a new Brown University-MBL Graduate Program in Biological and Environmental Studies. The first group of graduate students entered the program in the fall of 2004. As part of this Brown/MBL partnership, Melillo was appointed to the Brown faculty as a Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Melillo is currently President of the Ecological Society of America, and Past-President of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment, an international organization that conducts assessments of emerging environmental issues. He lives in Falmouth, Massachusetts with his wife, Lalise, who teaches history and rhetoric at Falmouth Academy, a local private school. They have one son, Ted Melillo, who is a graduate of Swarthmore College and is now finishing his Ph.D. in environmental history at Yale. | |
| 7 | Name: | Dr. Frank Wilczek | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 106. Physics | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1951 | | | | | | |
Frank Wilczek is considered one of the world's most original and productive theoretical physicists. At the age of 21, with David Gross, he developed the theoretical framework for what was to become Quantum Chromodynamics, the theory of the forces that bind quarks and gluons together to form particles such as the proton. It was for this work that he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in physics. In addition to his technical contributions he has frequently published articles for other physicists explaining the subtleties of complicated theories, as well as numerous articles for the lay person. Dr. Wilczek received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974 and taught there until 1981 when he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1989-2000, and since 2000 he has served as the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2014 he was honored with the Award for Essays from the Gravity Research Foundation. | |
| 8 | Name: | Dr. Maria T. Zuber | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 105. Physical Earth Sciences | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1958 | | | | | | |
Maria Zuber is E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics and Vice President for Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A world leader in the study of planetary topography and interior structure, she co-led the team that produced the topographic map of Mars that is more accurate than Earth's. Her team also developed the first reliable models of the interiors of the moon and Mars that showed that both bodies cooled rapidly after accretion. Dr. Zuber also served on the Presidential Commission tasked with implementing President Bush's space exploration plan and has authored or co-authored over 140 peer-reviewed publications. In 2002 she was named to Discover magazine's list of the 50 most important women in science. | |
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