College of Liberal Arts & Sciences faculty members Alison Bell and Charles Gammie have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest honorary societies in the United States. Founded in 1780, the academy recognizes scientists, artists, scholars and leaders who have distinguished themselves in the public, private and nonprofit sectors.
Bell, a professor of evolution, ecology and behavior, studies the evolution of behavior in the three-spined stickleback fish. She is a pioneer in the study of animal personality, using genomics and other tools to understand the causes and consequences of individual behavior differences. She is a member of the Animal Behavior Society, the International Society for Behavioral Ecology, and the American Society of Naturalists. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. She also is affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois.
Gammie, a professor of astronomy and physics, is a leading theoretical and computational astrophysicist. His work has expanded our understanding of black holes, hot plasmas, and the formation of stars and planets. He is distinguished in the field for his command of both the theory of general relativity and mathematics. Gammie led the Theory Working Group of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, which captured the first image of a black hole. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society.
Three other University of Illinois faculty members also are among the 250 inductees for 2024: Nancy M. Amato, Abel Bliss Professor of Engineering and department head of computer science; Rashid Bashir, Grainger distinguished professor of bioengineering and dean of The Grainger College of Engineering; and physics professor Paul Selvin. The new members will be inducted in a ceremony on Sept. 21 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The complete list of members elected to the academy is available on its website.
