AAAS elects seven faculty members from Chicago

The Council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences elected seven members of the University faculty as AAAS fellows at its annual meeting April 15. Faculty members elected to the academy are John Carlstrom, David Jablonski, Saul Levmore, Jonathan Smith, Richard Thaler, Robert Wald and Anthony Yu.

The Council of the AAAS elected a total of 154 new fellows and 15 foreign honorary members this year. The new members, chosen in recognition of their distinguished contributions to science, scholarship, public affairs and the arts, represent 89 institutions in 22 states and 11 foreign countries. The members will be inducted at a formal ceremony at the House of the Academy Saturday, Oct. 14.

	Carlstrom, Professor in Astronomy & Astrophysics and Director of the University’s Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica, joined the Chicago faculty in 1995. His research centers on radiation from space that falls between infrared, or heat, radiation and radio waves. In particular, Carlstrom studies the cosmic microwave background radiation, the afterglow of the big bang. He received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988 and a B.S. in physics from Vassar College in 1981.
	Jablonski, Professor in Geophysical Sciences, came to the University as an Associate Professor in 1985. He is a paleontologist who studies macroevolution, which takes place above the species level and encompasses large-scale patterns of evolution, mass extinction, diversification and the origin of evolutionary breakthroughs. Jablonski, who currently is a Guggenheim fellow, earned a B.A. at Columbia University and an M.S. in 1976 and Ph.D. in 1979 from Yale University.
	Levmore, the William B. Graham Professor of Law in the Law School, joined the faculty of the University in 1998. His research is in corporations, torts, corporate tax, comparative law, commercial law, contracts, insurance, and public choice and the law. Levmore, who was a Visiting Professor at Chicago’s Law School in 1993, received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1980, his Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1978 and his B.A. from Columbia University in 1973.
	Smith, the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, began teaching at the University in 1968. A 1986 recipient of a Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Smith has served the University in a number of capacities, including Master of the Humanities Collegiate Division from 1973 to 1977 and Dean of the College from 1977 to 1982. A historian of religions, Smith focuses on such subjects as ritual theory, Hellenistic religions and 19th-century Maori cults. He earned his Ph.D. in the history of religions from Yale University in 1969 and his B.A. in philosophy from Haverford College in 1960.
	Thaler, the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Behavioral Science & Economics in the Graduate School of Business, joined the Chicago faculty in 1995. An expert on behavioral economics and finance, Thaler also studies the psychology of decision making. He received his Ph.D. in 1974 and M.A. in 1970 from the University of Rochester and a B.A. in economics in 1967 from Case Western Reserve.
	Wald, Professor in Physics, has been a Chicago faculty member since 1976. His research mainly focuses on general relativity and the theory of quantum phenomena in strong gravitational fields, particularly quantum effects involving black holes and black hole thermodynamics. The recipient of a 1997 Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, Wald earned a Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1972 and an A.B. from Columbia University in 1968.
	Yu, the Carl Darling Buck Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities, came to the University as an Instructor in 1968. His scholarly interests center on the comparative study of both literary and religious traditions. Yu’s publications include comparisons of Chinese and Western texts, literary and religious histories, and issues of theory and criticism. Before receiving his Ph.D. in religion and literature from the University in 1969, Yu earned an S.T.B. at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1963 and a B.A. in history and English at Houghton College in 1960.