PIMS University of Washington Site Director Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has announced the 2009 election of new fellows. The new fellows include Gunther Uhlmann, who is the PIMS Site Director at the University of Washington. This is a significant distinction, awarded to leaders in the sciences, humanities, arts, business and public affairs.

Gunther Uhlmann works on inverse problems, an area which attempts to determine the internal parameters of a medium by making measurements at the boundary or at the exterior of the medium. Another recent area of his interest has been cloaking, which deals with the question of how to make objects invisible to electromagnetic waves, sound waves and other types of waves.

The induction ceremony for this year's class will also include Nelson Mandela and actor Dustin Hoffman, and will take place on October 10. The Academy of Arts & Sciences is an independent policy research center founded in 1780. The full list of the new fellows and foreign honorary members can be found on the academy news release.