Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists Dung-Hai Lee and Jizhong Zhou were recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The academy functions as an honor society and independent research center for leaders across a variety of disciplines, according to their website.

“It is my great honor to be elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,” Zhou said in an email. Zhou is a visiting faculty member in Berkeley Lab’s Climate & Ecosystem Sciences Division of the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area and a professor at the University of Oklahoma. “I greatly appreciate my previous advisors, collaborators, students, postdocs, and visitors for their strong support, help, and encouragement over last 40 years.”

Zhou stated that he began his life in south-central China’s Hunan province, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in plant pathology and entomology in 1981 and his master’s degree in insect mathematical ecology in 1984 at the Hunan Agricultural University.

Later in his life, Zhou received a doctorate in molecular genetics and cell biology in 1993 from Washington State University. He officially joined Berkeley Lab as a visiting faculty member in 2006.

Some of Zhou’s most notable achievements to date include: discoveries in comprehending principles of microbial systems in response to climate change, advancements in theoretical ecology of microbial systems and developments in computational technologies pertaining to network analysis and functions of community assembly.

“I will continue several existing collaborative projects, and would like to develop new collaborative projects related to climate change, theoretical ecology, and ecosystem modeling,” Zhou said in the email.

Zhou also noted his interest in working with younger scientists on collaborative projects to help advance their professional development.

Lee, a faculty senior scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and professor of physics at UC Berkeley, began his career far from his current workplace.

“I was born in Taiwan, to a family of two boys,” Lee said in an email. “My father was a columnist, and my Mom was a housewife. I got a B.S. in physics from Tsinghua University in 1977. I attended MIT for graduate school, and got a physics PhD in 1982.”

Lee’s specialty is in condensed matter theories.

He noted that he has been credited with making various advancements in the field, including high-temperature superconductivity and phase transitions within the quantum Hall effect.

“It is a great honor to be elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,” Lee said in the email. “I look forward to continuing working in the areas of unconventional superconductivity and topological condensed matter physics.”