Caltech Professors Honored by Royal Society
Garnet Kin-Lic Chan and Michael Elowitz have been recognized for their groundbreaking contributions to science.
"I am delighted to welcome this newest group of exceptional scientists to the Fellowship of the Royal Society. Their contributions reflect the highest standards of scientific endeavour." — Sir Paul Nurse, president of the Royal Society
The Honor
The Royal Society, the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence (founded in 1660), has named two Caltech professors among its 2025 inductees.
- Garnet Kin-Lic Chan, Bren Professor of Chemistry and director of the Rudolph A. Marcus Center for Theoretical Chemistry, was named a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- Michael Elowitz, Roscoe Gilkey Dickinson Professor of Biology and Bioengineering and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, was named a Foreign Member.
Chan and Elowitz are among over 90 inductees this year.
About Garnet Kin-Lic Chan
Chan works at the intersection of theoretical chemistry, condensed matter physics, and quantum information theory. His research focuses on simulating chemical and physical systems at the level of many-particle quantum mechanics.
His lab carried out quantum mechanical simulations that unveiled low-energy states in complex metallocluster cores—including those involved in photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation.
Education and Career: Chan received his BA (1996) and PhD (2000) from the University of Cambridge. He was a Moore Distinguished Scholar at Caltech before joining the faculty as Bren Professor in 2016 and became director of the Marcus Center for Theoretical Chemistry in 2025. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
About Michael Elowitz
Elowitz's lab studies how biological "circuits" of interacting genes and proteins generate complex cellular behaviors, including differentiation, communication, computation, and memory.
Recent breakthroughs include introducing synthetic circuits that generate many stable gene-expression states with few protein components, as well as circuits for therapeutic capabilities such as selectively targeting cancer cells.
Education and Career: Elowitz received a BA from UC Berkeley (1992) and PhD from Princeton University (1999). He joined Caltech in 2003, became full professor in 2010, and was named Dickinson Professor in 2024. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2007.