Clare Yu is named a fellow by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Physicist joins 34 other UCI faculty members in the prestigious organization
Irvine, Calif., April 17, 2019 — Clare Yu, professor of physics & astronomy at the University of California, Irvine, has been elected a fellow by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The 239th class of inductees includes more than 200 individuals with compelling achievements in academia, business, government and public affairs.
Yu earned bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Princeton University. She joined the faculty at UCI in 1989 and has a broad range of research interests, among them biophysics, condensed matter physics and quantum computing.
“Professor Yu’s work demonstrates the academic excellence that distinguishes those elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,” said Enrique Lavernia, UCI provost and executive vice chancellor. “This is yet another illustration of the remarkable achievements of UCI’s faculty, which include 41 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 35 members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, nine members of the National Academy of Inventors and four members of the National Academy of Education.”
Yu’s biophysics research focuses on intracellular transport, how molecules are sorted and moved around cells to perform useful functions; the role of chemical signaling in developmental biology, particularly the complexities around symmetry and wound healing in living organisms; and the implementation of statistical techniques to understand how, why and where cancerous tumors grow and the best way to treat patients with immunotherapies. She has conducted extensive research into how active defects affect the low-temperature properties of glasses and qubits, the basic elements of any working quantum computer.
“It is a great honor to have been elected a fellow by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,” she said. “The research I’ve done at UCI would not have been possible without the wonderful collaborations I’ve had with a great group of students, postdocs and colleagues here.”
Yu, who has received a Sloan Research Fellowship and is a fellow of the American Physical Society, will be officially inducted in an October ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening elected members from the academic, business and government sectors to respond to challenges facing the nation and the world.
About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.
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