NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:
A photo of Martin Golubitsky is available on the Web at http://www.uh.edu/media/nr/
2006/ 05may/050806mgolubitsky.html.
PRESIDENTS, PULITZER PRIZE WINNERS JOIN
UH PROF IN HIGH HONOR
Mathematician Martin Golubitsky Elected to the American Academy
of Arts and Sciences
HOUSTON, May 10, 2006 – Joining past U.S. presidents and
Pulitzer Prize winners, Martin Golubitsky, a University of Houston
mathematician, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts
and Sciences.
Golubitsky, Cullen Distinguished Professor of Mathematics at UH,
is among 175 new Fellows and 20 new Foreign Honorary Members. The
Academy will welcome the new class at its annual Induction Ceremony
Oct. 7 at its headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. This year’s
Fellows include former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton,
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and film director Martin
Scorsese.
“It is an outstanding honor to be invited to membership in
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and I am delighted for
Professor Golubitsky and for the entire math department,”
said UH Provost Donald Foss.
In existence since 1780, the Academy was founded by John Adams,
John Hancock and other scholar-patriots. The current membership
includes more than 170 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners
and has included such historical greats as George Washington, Ben
Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill.
Recent inductees have conducted research in science and global security,
social policy, the humanities and culture, and education. Current
membership is comprised of both scholars and practitioners from
math, physics, biology, social science, the humanities, public affairs
and business, giving the Academy the ability to conduct a range
of interdisciplinary studies and public policy research.
“I’m thrilled to have been elected to the American Academy,”
Golubitsky said. “This award recognizes research much of which
was produced here at UH in collaboration with a great group of faculty,
postdoctoral associates and students.”
Golubitsky’s election as a member of the Academy was based
on his research in a new subbranch of mathematics called symmetric
bifurcation theory that studies how solutions to symmetric equations
change as a parameter is varied. One example of symmetry-breaking
bifurcations includes transitions between different gaits in four-legged
animals. His work has shown how animal gaits such as walk, trot
and pace can be described by symmetries involving the interchanging
of the legs.
In a collaborative effort with Ian Stewart, a professor at the University
of Warwick and adjunct math professor at UH, Golubitsky developed
a theory that describes the simplest kinds of mathematical equations
that can produce the rhythms of the walk, trot and pace. These equations
can produce the jump, as well, which was found by the duo while
watching a bareback bucking bronco at the Houston Livestock Show
and Rodeo. Golubitsky’s research on gaits led to his current
interest in mathematical neuroscience and network dynamics.
“In addition to my work with Stewart, I have had the good
fortune to work with many talented researchers over the years,”
Golubitsky said. “My Cullen Chair has provided the resources
to continue my research in a way that research grants by themselves
cannot do. It has made funds available that have helped make our
dynamical systems group known internationally, as well as make visits
by internationally respected researchers to UH easy to arrange.”
Coming to UH in 1983, Golubitsky became Cullen Distinguished Professor
of Mathematics in 1989. Earning his Ph.D. in 1970 from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, he has contributed to the development of
symmetric bifurcation theory throughout the past 25 years and has
lectured at Duke University, the University of California at Berkeley
and Arizona State University, among others. He is also president
of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and director
of the Institute for Theoretical Engineering and Science.
In 1997, Golubitsky earned the Farfel Award, UH’s highest
faculty honor. Proving that lightning can strike twice in one family,
his wife and fellow mathematician, Barbara Keyfitz, the John and
Rebecca Moores Professor of Mathematics at UH, just recently won
the Farfel Award for 2006. See related story at http://www.uh.edu/uhtoday/2006/facultyawards/050306bkeyfitz.html.
Previous UH inductees to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
are Paul Chu, T.L.L. Temple Chair of Science and professor of physics,
in 1989; Neal Amundson, UH Cullen Distinguished Professor of Chemical
Engineering and Mathematics, in 1992; and Adam Zagajewski, UH Distinguished
University Professor of English, in 1999.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
and institutes and sponsors more than 300 partnerships with corporate,
civic and governmental entities. UH, the most diverse research university
in the country, stands at the forefront of education, research and
service with more than 35,000 students.
About the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
The UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with nearly
400 faculty members and approximately 4,000 students, offers bachelors,
masters and doctoral degrees in the natural sciences, computational
sciences and mathematics. Faculty members in the departments of
biology and biochemistry, chemistry, computer science, geosciences,
mathematics and physics have internationally recognized collaborative
research programs in association with UH interdisciplinary research
centers, Texas Medical Center institutions and national laboratories.
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