UW News
July 18, 2023
Eight UW professors elected to Washington State Academy of Sciences
Eight professors at the University of Washington have been elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences, the organization announced on July 17. The Academy said members are elected “in recognition of their outstanding record of scientific and technical achievement, and their willingness to work on behalf of the Academy to bring the best available science to bear on issues within the state of Washington.”
The 2023 cohort includes 29 new members. Twenty-six were elected by current WSAS members, and the other three were selected because they recently joined one of the National Academies.
The UW faculty who will be formally inducted in September are:
- Betty Bekemeier, Kirby & Kelly Cramer Endowed Professor of Nursing, for “contributions to improving public health systems and services. Foundational to Senator Murray’s Public Health Infrastructure Saves Lives Act, her research supports collection of standardized public health financial data assessing impact.”
- Jesse Bloom, associate professor of microbiology and of genome sciences at the UW School of Medicine and professor and investigator at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, for “contributions to our understanding of viral evolution and how mutations shape a pathogen’s ability to infect and spread. His discoveries have driven the scientific and public discourse on numerous viruses, including influenza, HIV, and most recently SARS-CoV-2.”
- Corie Cobb, Washington Research Foundation Innovation Professor in Clean Energy and professor of mechanical engineering, for “outstanding contributions to the fundamental understanding of battery electrode architectures and the development of advanced manufacturing methods to accelerate commercialization of materials processing technology.”
- Sara Curran, professor of sociology and of public policy and governance, director of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology and associate vice provost for research, for “groundbreaking work in demography and the sociology of migration, taking a multi-faceted approach that illuminates the dynamic interplay between demographic conditions and factors such as gender, socio-economic context, and climate change.”
- Denise Galloway, research professor of microbiology at the UW School of Medicine, professor at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and director of the Pathogen-Associated Malignancies Integrated Research Center, for “For contributions to advancing our understanding of the role that small DNA tumor viruses – human papillomaviruses (HPV) and human polyomavirus (HPyV) – play in cancer development.”
- Mehran Mesbahi, J. Ray Bowen Endowed Professor for Innovation in Engineering Education and professor of aeronautics and astronautics, for “extraordinary contributions to guidance and control of autonomous and distributed aerospace systems, for leadership in educational innovations, and for advancing aerospace technology transfers leading to industry research collaborations throughout his career.”
- Yong Tan, Michael G. Foster Endowed Professor of Information Systems and chair of the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, for “outstanding contributions to advance our understanding of how technologies impact the behaviors and decision-making of individuals, organizations, and society in the contexts of e-commerce, social media, fintech, healthcare, and sharing economy.”
- Yinhai Wang, Thomas and Marilyn Nielsen Endowed Professor in Engineering, professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of PacTrans and STAR Lab, for “pioneering contributions to traffic sensing, transportation data science, edge AI, and smart infrastructure system theory and technologies, as well as the exceptional leadership in regional collaborations among academia, industry, and agencies for creating transformational mobility solutions.”
Correction: An earlier version of this release omitted the election of Denise Galloway to the Academy.
Tag(s): Betty Bekemeier • Center for Studies in Demography & Ecology • College of Engineering • Corie Cobb • Foster School of Business • Jackson School of International Studies • Jesse Bloom • Mehran Mesbahi • PacTrans • Provost Office • Sara Curran • School of Nursing • Washington State Academy of Sciences • Yinhai Wang • Yong Tan
