Academia Sinica Academicians Sunney Chan and Evelyn Hu have been elected fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the academy announced April 19, 2010. They will be inducted at a ceremony on October 9, 2010 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This year 229 prominent figures in the fields of sciences, social sciences, the humanities, the arts, business and public affairs have been elected members or foreign honorary members of the AAAS. Academicians Chan and Hu were both elected for their distinguished contributions to sciences. 

Academician Chan’s research focuses on physical biochemistry, the structure and function of membrane proteins, magnetic resonance spectroscopy, bioinorganic chemistry, protein folding and bioenergetics. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Chemistry at Academia Sinica and Distinguished Chair Professor at National Taiwan University. He was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 1988 and served as Vice President of Academia Sinica between 1999 and 2003. He was also the George Grant Hoag Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at California Institute of Technology between 1992 and 2001.

Academician Chan received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960. In addition to AAAS membership, he is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Biophysical Society, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS), and the International Society of Magnetic Resonance. During his career he has received many awards including the Bioenergetics Award (1984), the MERIT Award of National Institutes of Health (1990), Louis Pasteur Medal from Louis Pasteur Universite (2002) and the William C. Rose Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (2004).

Academician Hu’s research focuses on microelectronics technology. She was elected to the AAAS for her achievements as “a pioneer in the fabrication of nanoscale photoelectric devices”. She is currently the Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at Harvard University. Academician Hu has held many distinguished positions, including the California Nanosystems Institute, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Science and Technology Center for Quantized Electronic Structures, the Santa Barbara component of NSF National Nanofabrication Users Network and the Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics, all research organizations at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). Academician Hu was awarded her Ph.D. in physics from Columbia University in 1975. She was elected an Academician of Academia Sinica in 2004.

In addition to her AAAS membership, Academician Hu is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineers, as well as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers. During her career she has received many awards, including the AAAS Lifetime Mentor Award in 2000 and the UCSB Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award in 1999.

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 has a current membership of 4,000 American Fellows and 600 Foreign Honorary Members. The current elected members include 250 Nobel Prize laureates and 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.

    
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