Marine biologist Joe Connell

UC Santa Barbara professors Joseph H. Connell, Reginald G. Golledge, and Galen Stucky have been elected fellows of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the academy announced late last month.

Connell is a research professor of ecology, evolution, and marine biology. Golledge is a professor of geography. Stucky is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry. The three were part of the AAAS’s 2005 class, which includes 196 new fellows and 17 new foreign honorary members.

Their election brings the total number of UCSB faculty elected AAAS fellows to 21.

AAAS fellows come from throughout the arts and sciences and are nominated and elected to the academy by current members. A broad-based membership gives the academy, which was founded in 1780, a unique capacity to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary studies and public policy research.

Among those joining Connell, Golledge, and Stucky in the Class of 2005 are Nobel Prize-winning physicist Eric Cornell, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, actor and director Sidney Poitier, journalist Tom Brokaw, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial designer Maya Lin, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Horton Foote, Tony Kushner, and Alison Lurie.

Connell, who joined the UCSB faculty in 1956, specializes in studying the ecology of tropical rain forests and coral reefs. Golledge, who came to UCSB in 1977 and lost his sight in the early 1980s, is an expert in navigation systems for the visually impaired. Stucky joined UCSB’s Department of Chemistry in 1985 and is working to design and synthesize new materials.

This year’s new members will be inducted on Oct. 8 at the academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.