Two University of Colorado at Boulder faculty members have been elected fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science for 2004.
CU-Boulder Distinguished Professor Richard McCray of JILA and Professor Veronica Vaida of the chemistry and biochemistry department were among 308 AAAS members worldwide that were awarded fellow status in 2004.
McCray was cited for his pioneering work on the dynamics of interstellar gas and cosmic X-ray sources and for his leadership roles in space science policy and online astronomy courses. Vaida was cited for her distinguished contributions to the fields of molecular spectroscopy and photoreaction dynamics, in particular for sunlight driven photochemical processes in the atmosphere.
Elected by their peers, the fellows were cited by AAAS for "their efforts to advance science or its applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished." Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal, Science.
AAAS Fellows elected in 2004 will be honored at the 2005 AAAS Annual Meeting to be held in February in Washington, D.C.
McCray and Vaida join 34 active or emeritus faculty at CU-Boulder who are previously elected AAAS fellows.