UCLA Math professor Andrea Bertozzi was elected into the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of her “distinguishing and continuing achievements in original research.” Membership in the academy is one of the highest honors that a U.S. scientist can receive. Its members have included Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Thomas Edison, Orville Wright and Alexander Graham Bell. The academy announced the election of 84 new members and 21 foreign associates.
Bertozzi is also a joint professor with UCLA’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.
Bertozzi is leading UCLA’s new Simons Mathematical NanoSystems Initiative, with support from the Simons Foundation’s Math+X Investigator. The initiative focuses on two areas of research: understanding science at the nanoscale through advances in imaging and sensing technology, and, secondly, the development of micro-scale microfluidic engineering and device design. Bertozzi has also conducted research with Jeffrey Brantingham, a UCLA professor of anthropology, and colleagues to apply mathematics to reducing crime through predictive policing. This research has resulted in a mathematical model they devised to guide where the Los Angeles Police Department should deploy officers, which led to substantially lower crime rates.
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