Professors named to top honor societies

Ten University professors were elected to two prestigious academic honor societies, the University announced last week.

Five professors were elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), while another five current and emeritus professors were tapped to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS).

Astrophysics professor Bruce Draine, ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) professor Peter Grant, psychology professor Philip Johnson-Laird, EEB professor Stephen Pacala and astrophysics professor and department chair David Spergel '82 were elected to NAS.

Three current and two emeritus professors were chosen to join AAAS: molecular biology professor Bonnie Bassler, history professor emeritus Nell Painter, politics professor emeritus John Waterbury '61 and sociology professors Bruce Western and Viviana Zelizer.

The newly selected AAAS members join 222 other recently admitted leaders in their fields. With 4,600 members, AAAS is an "independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems," according to the group's website. It was founded during the Revolutionary War by James Bowdoin, John Adams and John Hancock to "cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."

The new NAS members, meanwhile, join 67 other members and 18 foreign associates who were also selected this week. Established in 1863 as an honorific society, NAS has 2,025 members who "[engage] in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare," according to the organization's website.

Spergel's studies emphasize searching for planets around nearby stars and ascertaining the shape of the universe. Recently, Spergel has done research relating to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) satellite, which was launched in 2001 and gauges the temperature of the cosmic background radiation. Because it measures the heat from the Big Bang, the WMAP might help answer questions about the origin of the universe.

"The Academy is a very distinguished group, and I have tremendous respect for [other members] in the Academy," Spergel said in an interview. He added that his research — which established a standard model of the universe, including the number of atoms and the amount of matter it contains — was highly collaborative. He cited his work with former University astrophysics professor David Wilkinson, who died of cancer in September 2002 and for whom the WMAP satellite is named.

"[Wilkinson is] one of the people who would have been named for the [Nobel] Prize if he had not died of cancer," Spergel said.

Draine's research focuses on topics including the scattering and absorption of light by small particles and the irradiation of gas with x-rays.

Grant's research focuses on the same finches Charles Darwin studied on the Galapagos Islands. According to Grant's website, the finches are valuable because "unique features, including the tameness of the finches and the simplicity of their undisturbed habitats, make them unusually suitable for field research into questions of evolution."

Johnson-Laird examines why reason sometimes fails. He said in an email that he was "very surprised" at his admission into the Academy, adding that the reason for his induction is "impossible to say."

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Pacala, the director of the Princeton Environmental Institute, researches the systems that control ecological communities, the associations between community and ecosystem-level processes and between global biosphere and climate. He also directs the Carbon Modeling Consortium, which focuses on understanding the global carbon cycle.

Bassler studies the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for communication. Her research may contribute to development of antimicrobial drugs.

Painter, who directed the African-American studies program from 1997 to 2000, has done interdisciplinary work on African-American history and the roles of gender, race and personal beauty in society.

Waterbury's research focuses on political economy in developing nations in the Middle East. He directed the Center of International Studies at Princeton until he moved to Lebanon in 1998 to become the president of the American University of Beirut.

Western studies how political institutions influence the social and economic circumstances of the disadvantaged. Currently, he is examining the economic and family lives of men who have spent time in prison.

Zelizer is well known for her work relating economic activity and personal life. In her most recent publication, "The Purchase of Intimacy," she argues that economic value and personal life are "each marked by a distinctive set of monetary transfers."