Chan and Elowitz Named to Great Britain's Royal Society

Caltech's Garnet Kin-Lic Chan, Bren Professor of Chemistry and director of the Rudolph A. Marcus Center for Theoretical Chemistry, and Michael Elowitz, Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Biology and Bioengineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, have been named a fellow and a foreign member, respectively, of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. Founded in 1660 under the patronage of King Charles II, the Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. Chan and Elowitz are among more than 90 inductees to the society this year.

I am delighted to welcome this newest group of exceptional scientists to the Fellowship of the Royal Society," said Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society, in a statement. "Their contributions reflect the highest standards of scientific endeavour. Whether advancing our understanding of vaccines or exploring the transformative potential of mathematics and computation, their work exemplifies the enduring value of curiosity, creativity and rigorous inquiry."

Chan works at the interface of theoretical chemistry, condensed matter physics, and quantum information theory, and focuses broadly on the simulation of chemical and physical systems at the level of many-particle quantum mechanics. For example, his lab carried out quantum mechanical simulations that helped unveil the low-energy states existing in complex metallocluster cores, like those that drive vital natural processes such as photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation. Over the last decade, his group has contributed to and invented a variety of methods addressing different aspects of quantum simulations.

Chan received his BA from the University of Cambridge in 1996 and his PhD from the same institution in 2000. Chan was a Moore Distinguished Scholar at Caltech before joining the faculty as Bren Professor in 2016 and was named director of the Marcus Center for Theoretical Chemistry in 2025. Chan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).

Research in Elowitz's lab focuses on understanding how biological "circuits" of interacting genes and proteins generate complex cellular behaviors, such as differentiation, communication, computation, and memory. For example, his recent research introduced synthetic circuits that generate many stable gene-expression states with just a few protein components. Elowitz and his team are also designing synthetic circuits that provide useful therapeutic capabilities, such as selectively targeting cancer cells. z

Elowitz received a BA from UC Berkeley in 1992 and his PhD from Princeton University in 1999. He joined the Caltech faculty in 2003, became full professor in 2010, and was named Dickinson Professor in 2024. Elowitz is a member of NAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.