American Academy of Arts and Sciences names four Cornell academics as fellows

This year's class of American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows includes four Cornell faculty members in disciplines ranging from mathematics to psychology.

They are: Barbara A. Baird, the Horace White Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology; John Guckenheimer, professor of mathematics; Carol L. Krumhansl, professor of psychology; and G. Peter Lepage, professor of physics and the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

They join 186 other new fellows from the United States and 22 foreign honorary members elected this year. The new members will be inducted at a ceremony Oct. 11 in Cambridge, Mass.

Baird's research group uses biochemical and biophysical approaches to understand cell surface receptors and mediate transmembrane signals in immune responses. Her work includes developing biophysical and nanobiological approaches for studying mechanisms of receptor-mediated cell activation.

Guckenheimer studies dynamical systems and their applications. His current work focuses on algorithm development for problems involving periodic orbits, and applications to the neurosciences, animal locomotion, turbulent combustion and control of nonlinear systems.

Krumhansl's research interests include human perception and cognition; cognitive processes in music perception and memory; application of mathematical models to psychological data; and multidimensional scaling and clustering.

Lepage, as well as being arts and sciences dean, is a physics researcher with interests in quantum field theory, particle physics, condensed matter physics and nuclear physics. He works on fundamental theory of quarks and gluons that explains the internal structure and interactions of protons, neutrons and other strongly interacting atomic particles.

Founded in 1780, the Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.

For more information visit the academy's Web site.

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Blaine Friedlander