Three UCSB Faculty Members Elected as Fellows of AAAS

Santa Barbara, Calif

-- Three faculty members of the University of California, Santa Barbara have been elected Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Election as a Fellow of AAAS is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers. The new Fellows from UCSB are: S. James Allen in physics, David A. Low in biology, and Phillip L. Walker in anthropology.

They are among 348 AAAS members who have been elected Fellows this year for their efforts to advance science or applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin on Saturday, February 14, at the Fellows Forum during the 2004 AAAS Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington.

This year's AAAS Fellows will be announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal, Science on October 31, 2003.

In the physics section, S. James Allen was elected AAAS Fellow for excellent contributions using terahertz excitation coupled with transport measurements to understand semiconductor nanostructures, hot-electron dynamics, magnetism, metal physics, and high temperature superconductivity. Allen, current chair of the UCSB Department of Physics, received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1965. He was with Bell Labs and then Bellcor, and served as adjunct professor at Northeastern University and Princeton University. He joined the physics faculty of UCSB in 1991 as a professor and as director of UCSB's Quantum Institute.

In the biology section, David A. Low was elected AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to the field of genetic regulation, particularly for studies on the epigenetic regulation of gene expression by DNA methylation in bacteria. Low completed his Ph.D. in 1982 at the University of California, Irvine. He did postdoctoral work at Stanford University and then served as professor for 13 years at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center before joining the faculty at UCSB in 1998.

In the anthropology section, Phillip L. Walker was elected AAAS Fellow for distinguished contributions to biological anthropology, providing leadership in the development of bioarchaeology and the growing understanding of the history of human health. Walker received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1973 and joined the faculty of UCSB in 1974.

The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. Currently, members can be considered for the rank of Fellow if nominated by the steering groups from the association's 24 sections, or by any three Fellows who are current AAAS members (so long as two of the three sponsors are not affiliated with the nominee's institution), or by the Chief Executive Officer. Each steering group then reviews the nominations of individuals within its respective section and a final list is forwarded to the AAAS Council, which votes on the aggregate list.

Founded in 1848, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has worked to advance science for human well-being through its projects, programs, and publications, in the areas of science policy, science education and international scientific cooperation. AAAS is the world's largest general federation of scientists. It's journal, Science, is an editorially independent, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed weekly that ranks among the world's most prestigious scientific journals.