Thiemens & Onuchic Elected to NAS

April 25, 2006 on 4:23 pm | In Faculty News |

Mark H. Thiemens (Chemistry/Biochemistry and Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences) and José N. Onuchic (Physics and Co-Director of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics) were among the 3 UCSD faculty just elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

From the UCSD press release:
Thiemens, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is an expert in atmospheric chemistry whose studies frequently employ rocket-borne sampling to understand the chemistry of the earth’s upper atmosphere.

The founder and director of UCSD’s Center for Environmental Research and Training, Thiemens has done research on a wide variety of problems—from ozone chemistry to global warming to questions about the prospect of life on Mars. His most recent work has focused on understanding climate change from chemical clues embedded in the ice at the South Pole.

Onuchic, a professor of physics, has since 2002 co-directed the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, which uses the theoretical tools of physics to understand the fundamental principles governing complex biological systems. This interdisciplinary approach—carried out jointly by physicists, chemists, mathematicians and biologists—has begun to provide biologists with a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms governing complex biological systems, such as networks of neurons or biochemical pathways in the assembly of proteins, and allowed physicists to develop new principles and models for complex systems based on biological phenomena.