A physicist, a biologist and an environmental lawyer are UC Berkeley’s newest fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, joining more than 220 others on campus who have been honored for their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Mary Gaillard, professor emerita of physics (UC Berkeley photo by Robert Sanders)
The three – Mary Gaillard, Krishna Niyogi and Holly Doremus – are among 391 new fellows announced today by the Washington, D.C.-based organization, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.
Gaillard, a professor emerita of physics and a senior scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was honored for “outstanding contributions to the phenomenology of gauge theories, both in and beyond the standard model, and for inspiring women physicists worldwide.” Last year, Gaillard authored a book about her experiences as a woman physicist.
Krishna Niyogi, professor of plant and microbial biology
Niyogi, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, professor and chair of plant and microbial biology and faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab, was cited for “pioneering investigation of the regulation of photosynthesis and mechanisms of photoprotection in plants and algae.” Niyogi and his colleagues recently re-engineered a plant to use sunlight more efficiently, boosting yields by 20 percent.
Doremus, the James H. House and Hiram H. Hurd Professor Of Environmental Regulation in the UC Berkeley School of Law and faculty director of the Law of the Sea Institute, was honored for “distinguished contributions to environmental law, natural resources law, and law and science, particularly involving the complex interactions among natural science, social science and policy.” Recently, Doremus and others have put forward guidelines for how new state agencies should manage critical groundwater resources.
Holly Doremus, professor of law
The new fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue rosette pin representing science and engineering, respectively, on Saturday, Feb. 18, during the 2017 AAAS annual meeting in Boston.
Three other Berkeley Lab scientists also were elected fellows: Eleanor Blakely, “for distinguished contributions to the field of biophysics, particularly to the biological effects of radiation relevant to cancer therapy and to travel in space;” Howard Matis, “for leadership roles in advancing physics knowledge through the APS (American Physical Society) and CPEP (Contemporary Physics Education Project), and for his development of a cosmic-ray detector used by schools nationwide”; and David Shuh, “for distinguished contributions to actinide chemistry, in particular for pioneering spectroscopic characterization of bonding in actinide materials with soft X-ray synchrotron radiation.”
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