Three UC Davis scholars are among the 24 affiliated with the university who were recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Selected by current academy members, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is a competitive process that acknowledges individuals whose contributions are influential to their field and to society.

The three UC Davis faculty chosen as fellows are:

• Alan Hastings, a distinguished professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Policy;
• Stephen Kowalczykowski, a professor in the Section of Microbiology and Director of the Center for Genetics and Development in the Division of Biological Sciences; and
• Michael Turelli, a professor and chair of the Section of Evolution and Ecology and a member of the Center for Population Biology.

With the 2005 election of 213 new AAAS fellows and foreign honorees, 509 UC faculty are a part of this learned society, composed of the world's leading scientists, scholars, artists, business people, and public leaders.

"The UC researchers who were elected to the academy underscore the stellar faculty for which our university is known worldwide, and I congratulate our newest fellows on this important honor," said UC President Robert Dynes, who is himself an academy fellow. "These honorees and their UC colleagues are making important contributions in creating new knowledge, in teaching and mentoring their students, and in producing innovative research that will benefit our nation and the world."

Hastings is an expert at using mathematical models to predict changes in populations of plants and animals over time and space, and in using ideas from complex dynamics to study problems in ecology. He is a leader in the design of marine reserves and is studying the natural and human impacts of the Bahamas system of marine protected areas (MPAs). He also is working on studies of the dynamics of marine populations and of the spread on the U.S. Pacific coast of an invasive marine cord grass, Spartina alterniflora.

Kowalczykowski studies the molecular "machines" that copy and repair DNA, one of the most fundamental processes of life. His lab uses unique equipment to film individual molecules at work on DNA in real time, giving unique insights into their biochemistry. He is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Academy of Microbiology.

Turelli studies genetics and evolution using the fruit fly, Drosophila, as a model system as well as carrying out research using mathematical models. He is especially interested in how new species form from existing populations.

By campus, the other UC scholars just elected are:

• From UC Berkeley: Giovanna Ferro-Luzzi Ames, biochemistry and molecular biology; Daniel Boyarin, near eastern studies; Ronald Lee, economics and demography of aging; Hiroshi Nikaido, biochemistry and molecular biology; and Robert Powell, political science.
• From UCLA: Christopher Donnan, anthropology; and Naomi Lamoreaux, economics and history.
• From UC San Diego: M. Salah Baouendi, mathematics; Michael Norman, physics; Linda Preiss Rothschild, mathematics; Jack Wolf, magnetics and Electrical and Computer Engineering; and Ajit Varki, cellular and molecular medicine.
• From UC San Francisco: David Julius, molecular biology; Richard Locksley, medicine; Louis Reichardt, cell physiology and biochemistry and biophysics; and Raymond White, neuroscience.
• From UC Santa Barbara: Joseph Connell, zoology; Reginald Golledge, geography; and Galen Stucky, chemistry and materials.
• From UC Santa Cruz: Michael Soulé, environmental studies

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people."

The AAAS has elected as fellows and foreign honorary members influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. The academy conducts innovative, non-partisan studies on international security, social policy, education, and the humanities.

Other fellows include Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, journalist Tom Brokaw and playwright Tony Kusnher who will be honored at the annual induction ceremony on Oct. 8, at the academy's headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.