Arts, Sciences Academy Elects 2 UCSB Faculty

Professors Joseph G. Polchinski and William W. Murdoch have been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Polchinski, a professor of physics, and Murdoch, a professor of ecology, were among the 177 Fellows in the academy's 2002 class. They bring to 23 the number of UCSB faculty to become Fellows of the academy.

Polchinski, a faculty member and research physicist since 1990, has spent much of his career working with string theory, which proposes that matter at its most basic level consists of tiny vibrating strings. The theory seeks to provide a unified depiction of all the forces and types of matter found in nature.

Murdoch, who joined the faculty in 1965, has worked extensively in population dynamics, particularly in the interactions between predators and prey, and parasites and their hosts. He established the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UCSB. In addition, he is the Charles Storke II Professor of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at UCSB, and is the director of the campus's seven natural reserves.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was formed in 1780 by American founding fathers John Adams, John Hancock, and others. Its current membership includes more than 150 Nobel laureates and more than 50 Pulitzer Prize winners.

Polchinski, Murdoch, and the rest of those elected this year will be formally inducted into the academy on October 5, in a ceremony at its headquarters in Cambridge, Mass.