Min Han and Arthur Nozik, both in the College of Arts and Sciences, and Kristine Larson in the College of Engineering and Applied Science have been named members of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The academy, founded in 1780 to help a young nation face its challenges through shared purpose, knowledge and ideas, announced its newest members Wednesday.
The 250 members elected in 2024 are being recognized for their excellence and invited to uphold the academy’s mission of engaging across disciplines and divides.
“Professors Han, Nozik and Larson embody the excellence in research, teaching and service that distinguish CU Boulder's faculty,” said CU Boulder Provost Russell Moore. “Their awards honor their individual achievements but also honor CU Boulder's commitment to creating new knowledge that advances the public good.”
Min Han
College of Arts and Sciences
Han, a distinguished professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology uses Caenorhabditis elegans and mouse models to study diverse biological problems related to animal development, stress response, nutrient sensing and human disease by applying both genetic and biochemical methods.
Kristine Larson
College of Engineering and Applied Science
Larson, an astrodynamics engineer, has developed groundbreaking new uses for GPS systems. While GPS is primarily thought of as a wayfinding tool, Larson has stretched and reshaped the technology, inventing methods to use it for everything from measuring Arctic ice sheets to monitoring soil moisture on farms.
She retired from CU Boulder in 2018 but is still publishing original research, with multiple papers currently in review. In 2021, Larson also created a free web app utilizing global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) information to allow members of the public to analyze GPS data in real-time.
Arthur Nozik
College of Arts and Sciences
Nozik, a research professor emeritus of chemistry and senior research fellow emeritus at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, has researched the basic phenomena at semiconductor-molecule interfaces and the dynamics of electron relaxation and transfer across these interfaces.
The new class joins academy members elected before them, including Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton in the 18th century; Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maria Mitchell and Charles Darwin in the 19th century; Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Margaret Mead, Milton Friedman, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jacques Derrida in the 20th; and, in this century, Madeleine Albright, Antonin Scalia, Jennifer Doudna (a Nobel Prize winner who once studied at CU Boulder), John Legend, David W. Miliband, Anna Deavere Smith, Salman Rushdie and Xuedong Huang.
In all, 42 CU Boulder faculty members have been named American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows. Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 2024.
