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Two UNC faculty members are elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
CHAPEL HILL -- Two members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty have been elected fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of “preeminent contributions” in their fields.
April 28, 2005
Two UNC faculty members are elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
CHAPEL HILL -- Two members of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty have been elected fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of “preeminent contributions” in their fields.
New faculty fellows at UNC are Dr. Jack D. Griffith, Kenan distinguished professor of microbiology and immunology in UNC’s School of Medicine and member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Dr. Joseph M. DeSimone, the W.R. Kenan Jr. distinguished professor of chemistry and chemical engineering in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences (and at North Carolina State University).
This brings the total number of UNC faculty members who have been elected to academy membership to 27.
Among the 196 fellows and 17 foreign honorary members named to the prestigious academy this year are U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, painter Jeff Koons, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Dr. Eric Cornell, journalist Tom Brokaw and Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska.
“It gives me great pleasure to welcome these outstanding leaders in their fields in this, the Academy’s 225th year,” said academy President Patricia Meyer Spacks. “Fellows are selected through a highly competitive process that recognizes individuals who have made preeminent contributions to their disciplines and to society at large.”
Griffith, a member of the medical faculty since 1977, received his bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1964 and his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology in 1969.
The author of more than 150 professional publications, in 1971 Griffith published the first electron microscope image of DNA bound to a known protein. This image and others published in that seminal paper with Nobel laureate Dr. Arthur Kornberg demonstrated electron microscopy’s potential for quantitative DNA analysis.
His melding of electron microscopy methods with biochemical tools has revealed important insights into genetic diseases. His 1999 discovery with Rockefeller University colleague Dr. Titia de Lange that the ends of chromosomes, telomeres, are tied in firmly knotted loops was heralded worldwide as important for gaining insights into cancer and aging.
He has received numerous awards, including the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Herbert A. Sober Leadership Award. The society recognized Griffith as the world’s most outstanding electron microscopist working with DNA.
DeSimone, a member of the college’s faculty since 1990, received his bachelor’s degree from Ursinus College in 1986 and his doctorate from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1990.
DeSimone, who holds more than 100 U.S. patents, has been widely recognized for being an innovative polymer scientist, and especially for discovering revolutionary ways to use carbon dioxide in place of conventional organic solvents for environmentally responsible manufacturing, cleaning and processing. Earlier this year, DeSimone was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, one of the highest honors in the field.
In addition, he directs UNC’s new Institute for Advanced Materials, Nanoscience and Technology, an interdisciplinary endeavor drawing on UNC research strengths in polymer science, nanomaterials and nanobiosciences, and involving faculty from the curriculum in applied and materials sciences, and the departments of chemistry, computer science, mathematics, and physics and astronomy. DeSimone also directs the National Science Foundation’s Science Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes, a collaborative endeavor with five universities.
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and others to cultivate the arts and sciences. Fellows have included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill.
Photo links:
DeSimone: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/desimone_joe.jpg
Griffith: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/griffith_jack_05.jpg
UNC College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339 or deereid@unc.edu
UNC School of Medicine contact: Les Lang, (919) 843-9687 or llang@med.unc.edu