Five UC Berkeley academics among new AAAS fellows

Four University of California, Berkeley, faculty members, plus an educator with the campus’s Museum of Paleontology, have been named fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the largest general scientific society in the world.

The 2009 fellows are among 531 new members selected “because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications,” according to a press release from the AAAS. They were announced in the Dec. 18 issue of the journal Science.

The new fellows from UC Berkeley are:

• W. Zacheus Cande, professor of molecular and cell biology, for “important contributions to our understanding of cell division in eukaryotes.”
• Donald J. DePaolo, professor of earth and planetary science and director of the Berkeley Center for Isotope Geochemistry, a center jointly operated by UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), “for sustained contributions in the application of isotope geochemistry to fundamental problems in earth sciences.”
• Jeffrey Allen Reimer, the Warren and Katharine Schlinger Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and a faculty scientist at LBNL, “for contributions to understanding materials chemistry through the application of sophisticated spectroscopic and physical measurements.”
• Judy Scotchmoor, academic coordinator and assistant director of the UC Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley, “for leadership in defending the teaching of evolution and quality science education through nationally recognized websites on these issues and through leadership of the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science.”
• Yuen-Ron Shen, professor emeritus of physics and LBNL faculty scientist, “for his pioneering use of lasers to investigate nonlinear interactions of light and matter.”

New fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin representing, respectively, science and engineering, on Feb. 20 during the 2010 AAAS annual meeting in San Diego.

Founded in 1848, the non-profit AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Part of its mission is to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in areas such as science policy; international programs and science education.