Thomas Hou and Jonas Peters elected to the National Academy of Sciences – Pasadena Now

Thomas Y. Hou and Jonas C. Peters (Credit: Caltech)

Two Caltech professors, Thomas Y. Hou and Jonas C. Peters, were elected this year as the newest members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Membership in the academy is considered one of the highest honors a scientist can receive.

Thomas Hou is the Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics. Hou’s work focuses on multiscale problems arising from geophysical applications and fluid dynamics. He has made significant progress on the 3D Euler singularity problem, which is closely related to the Navier-Stokes Equation Millennium Problem, which questions whether the equation, regularly used to define the motion of fluids, always remains valid. Hou is also interested in issues related to multivariable data sets and in data analysis in environments where the model and data underlying the analysis are continuously updated.

Jonas Peters is the Bren Professor of Chemistry and director of the Resnick Sustainability Institute (RSI). His research focuses on chemical transformations relevant to nourishing and nurturing the planet. Specifically, his group is working on the development of catalysts and photocatalysts with applications in renewable solar fuel technologies, distributed nitrogen fixation for fertilizers and fuels, and novel binding constructs for organic chemists developing pharmaceutical products. The core of his laboratory’s work is the development of fundamentally new concepts for such catalysis and the elucidation of their underlying reaction mechanisms, together with the characterization of associated intermediates exhibiting unusual electronic structures and bonds. As director of the RSI, Peters leverages Caltech’s unique strengths to innovate solutions for a more sustainable planet.

Hou received his bachelor’s degree from South China University of Technology in 1982 and a doctorate in mathematics from UCLA in 1987. He joined Caltech in 1993 as an associate professor of applied mathematics, becoming a professor in 1998 and the Charles Lee Powell Professor of Applied and Computational Mathematics in 2004. From 2000 to 2006, he served as Executive Officer for Applied and Computational Mathematics.

Peters received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1993 and a doctorate from MIT in 1998. He joined the Caltech faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor of chemistry, became an associate professor in 2004, a full professor in 2006 and the Bren Professor. of Chemistry in 2010. From 2013 to 2015, he served as executive officer for chemistry and was appointed RSI director in 2015.

The Academy announced the election of Hou and Peters together with 118 other new members and 24 international members on April 30. The new members included six Caltech alumni. They are David N. Beratan (PhD ’86), the RJ Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, Professor of Biochemistry and Professor of Physics at Duke University; Geoffrey Blewitt (PhD ’86), professor of geosciences and professor of physics at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology; James M. Mayer (PhD ’83), the Charlotte Fitch Roberts Professor of Chemistry at Yale University; Richard Mooney (PhD ’91), the George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor for Research in Neurobiology and professor at Duke University; Kenneth S. Suslick (BS ’74), the Marvin T. Schmidt Professor of Chemistry, Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Peter T. Wolczanski (PhD ’81), the George W. and Grace L. Todd Professor of Chemistry at Cornell University. Richard Ellis, a visiting fellow in astronomy at Caltech from University College London, was also elected an international member.

According to the academy, the new additions bring the total number of active members to 2,617 and the total number of international members to 537.