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May 4, 2000
Princeton Professors Named to National Academy of Sciences
Princeton. N.J. -- Three members of the Princeton faculty were elected to the National Academy of Sciences during the academy's annual meeting May 2 in Washington D.C. The scholars were elected in recognition of their outstanding achievements in research:
Francis A. Dahlen Jr., professor of geosciences, is a geophysicist who has developed theories to describe the bell-like vibrations of the earth following large earthquakes, and methods of using these seismic vibrations to image the three-dimensional pattern of solid-state convection within the earth. He has also developed theoretical models of mountain building at collisional tectonic plate boundaries. With Professor Jeroen Tromp of Harvard University, he recently published a monograph, Theoretical Global Seismology (1998).
Simon A. Levin, George M. Moffett Professor of Biology, has made numerous contributions in the areas of ecology and biodiversity. He is particularly interested in problems of scale, how information about individuals and small groups is manifested in larger systems. His recent book, Fragile Dominion (1999), which is being reissued in paperback, develops an understanding of ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems, and lays out lessons for managing our environment.
Alejandro Portes, professor of sociology, is the author of some 200 articles and chapters on national development, economic, sociology, immigration, and urbanization. He current research includes studies of immigration and urbanization as well as the emergence of transnational communities among Latin American immigrants. His most recent books are City on the Edge, the Transformation of Miami (with A. Stepick; 1993), Immigrant America, a Portrait 2nd ed. (with Ruben G. Rumbau; 1996), and The Urban Caribbean (1997).