UW News

April 19, 2017

Two UW faculty named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Two University of Washington faculty members are among the leaders from academia, business, philanthropy, humanities and the arts elected as 2017 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.

Tom Anderson, professor at the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science & Engineering, and Karen Goldberg, professor of chemistry, join 228 new academy members this year.

“It is an honor to welcome this new class of exceptional women and men as part of our distinguished membership,” said Don Randel, chair of the Academy’s Board of Directors. “Their talents and expertise will enrich the life of the Academy and strengthen our capacity to spread knowledge and understanding in service to the nation.”

Tom Anderson

Tom Anderson

Anderson has made numerous, fundamental contributions to the field of computing in a research career that spans more than 25 years and has yielded more than 20 award papers. Anderson’s work has advanced a variety of significant areas, including operating systems, distributed systems, computer networks, multiprocessors and security. Recently, he has turned his attention to improving the performance of communication-intensive data center applications.

This latest honor follows Anderson’s induction last year into the National Academy of Engineering — one of the highest professional honors bestowed upon an engineer — as well as an impressive string of awards that includes the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computers & Communication Award, the USENIX Lifetime Achievement Award and election as a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

Karen Goldberg

Karen Goldberg

Goldberg’s research focuses on designing more efficient catalysts, or compounds that increase the rates of chemical reactions. Better catalysts can transform industrial production methods for everything from pharmaceuticals to construction materials.

Goldberg’s approach is to gather detailed data on the mechanisms by which certain chemical reactions occur and synthesize the desired products. This information is crucial to help develop catalysts that are more precise in the types of chemical products they yield, and more efficient and sustainable in terms of the amount of materials and energy used.

Goldberg also serves as director of the National Science Foundation-funded Center for Enabling New Technologies through Catalysis, a consortium of 20 faculty members and research labs at more than a dozen universities and research institutions that are pursuing innovative approaches to catalysis. Goldberg is a member of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and in 2016 received the American Chemical Society Award in Organometallic Chemistry.

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and  Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing the nation and the world. Current research focuses on higher education, the humanities, and the arts; science and technology policy; global security and energy; and American institutions and the public good.

Members of the 2017 class include winners of the Pulitzer Prize and the Wolf Prize; MacArthur fellows; Fields medalists; Presidential Medal of Freedom and National Medal of Arts recipients; and Academy Award, Grammy Award, Emmy Award, and Tony Award winners. A full list can be found here.

 

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