Academia Sinica Academician Yuk Ling Yung has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the academy announced April 19, 2011. The 2011 class will be inducted at a ceremony on October 1 at the Academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

        This year 212 prominent figures in the sciences, social sciences, humanities, arts, business and public affairs have been elected members or foreign honorary members of the AAAS. Academician Yung was named for his contributions to the astronomical sciences.

        Academician Yung’s research focuses on planetary atmospheres, planetary evolution, atmospheric chemistry, atmospheric radiation, astrobiology and global change. He is currently a Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology. He was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 2010 and served as a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Atmospheric Sciences, Harvard University (1974-1977), Assistant Professor of Planetary Science, California Institute of Technology (1977-1982), Associate Professor (1982-1986) and Professor (1986 to present). He was a Visiting Professor at Academia Sinica (1993-1994), a Co-investigator of the NASA Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph Experiment and a Co-investigator of the NASA Orbital Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) Mission.

        Academician Yung is Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Fellow of American Astronomical Society, and a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science. He won the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (2004), and became President of Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society of America, West Chapter (1988-1990), and President, Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society of America, National (1993-1998). 

        Another researcher from Taiwan, Dr. Jean Yin Jen Wang, a Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Biology, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD), was also elected to the AAAS 2011 class. Dr. Wang’s research focus is normal cell recognition and response to external and internal signals calling for growth, quiescence, differentiation and apoptosis (cell death) and how cancer cells ignore, circumvent or eliminate these normal regulatory pathways, leading to uncontrolled growth and spread of the disease.

         The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780. It is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The academy’s current projects focus on science and technology, global security, social policy and American institutions, the humanities and culture and education. It embraces a current membership of 4,000 American Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members. Current membership includes 250 Nobel Prize laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

        Related Websites:

        http://www.amacad.org/news/classlist2011.pdf

        http://www.amacad.org/