Three Penn State faculty elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Three Penn State faculty who have made distinguished contributions to the fields of physics, mathematics and anthropology have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The 269 new members elected in 2023 come from academia, the arts, industry, policy, research and science. They join the more than 13,500 members elected since the academy was founded by John Adams, John Hancock and 60 other founders of the United States in 1780.

Penn State faculty elected to the 2023 class of members are Zoltan Fodor, professor of physics; Yakov Pesin, distinguished professor of mathematics; and Joan Richtsmeier, distinguished professor of anthropology.

“On behalf of the University, I’m pleased to congratulate Drs. Fodor, Pesin and Richtsmeier on their well-deserved recognition by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,” said Lora Weiss, senior vice president for research. “Their accomplishments emphasize the importance that Penn State places on attracting and retaining leading researchers from the arts to the sciences to provide our students with a world-class education and support innovative research with global impacts.”

With more than $1 billion in annual research expenditures, Penn State ranks among the top 30 U.S. research universities and is one of only three institutions in the nation accorded land-grant, sea-grant, sun-grant and space-grant status. This year’s members represent the Eberly College of Science and the College of the Liberal Arts.

Zoltan Fodor

Fodor’s research focuses on better understanding lattice quantum chromodynamics — the theory of the strong nuclear force that binds together quarks and gluons, which are fundamental particles that form the protons and neutrons that make up all matter in the universe. He has conducted research at leading laboratories around the world, including CERN in Geneva, Switzerland; the German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany; and the Japanese High-Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) in Tsukuba, Japan.

Prior to joining Penn State in 2020, Fodor was a professor at Lorand Eotvos University in Budapest, Hungary, and the University of Wuppertal, Germany. He has been the spokesperson for the Budapest-Marseille-Wuppertal collaboration, an international group of particle physicists, since 2005. He is a fellow of the European Physical Society and honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He received his doctorate in physics from Eotvos Lorand University.

Yakov Pesin

Pesin’s research focuses on the theory of dynamical systems, or mathematical functions that describe the time dependence of a point in space, such as a swinging clock pendulum. His theory of non-uniform hyperbolicity, commonly called Pesin Theory, established the mathematical foundation for “deterministic chaos” — the appearance of highly irregular chaotic motions in otherwise deterministic dynamical systems.

Prior to joining Penn State, Pesin worked at a research institute in Moscow, Russia, and was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago. He is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and a foreign member of the European Academy. Pesin currently directs the Anatole Katok Center for Dynamical Systems and Geometry at Penn State. He received his doctorate in mathematics from Gorky State University (now called Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod) in Russia.

Joan Richtsmeier

Richtsmeier’s research focuses on understanding the impact of changes in genetic pathways that drive variation in shape of biological structures, especially of the skull and the brain. Her current work uses mouse models to understand variation produced by changes in genes that supervise development. Her group uses micro computed tomography images of mouse embryos to quantify morphological change and to further understand the physical development of the face, skull and brain in diverse diseases like craniosynostosis syndromes and Down syndrome.

Prior to joining Penn State in 2000, Richtsmeier conducted postdoctoral research at Northwestern University Medical School then joined the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Anatomy, the Society for Craniofacial Genetics and Developmental Biology, and the American Association of Biological Anthropologists. She has held numerous leadership roles in professional societies, including serving on the board of directors of the American Association for Anatomy and the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. She received her doctorate in anthropology from Northwestern University.