Wai-Yim Ching, Ph.D., Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
This year 416 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially Wai-Yim Ching, Ph.D., Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers.
This year 416 members have been awarded this honor by AAAS because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. New Fellows will be presented with an official certificate and a gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin Feb. 16 during the 2019 AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.
According to the AAAS, Ching was cited for his distinguished contributions to theory and methods of electronic structure and spectroscopic properties of materials.
Ching began teaching at UMKC as an assistant professor of physics in 1978. He quickly rose to a tenured associate professor in 1981 and a full professor in 1984. In 1988, he was named to his current role as a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Physics. His research and publications cover diverse disciplines, such as condensed matter physics, ceramics and glasses, chemistry, biology, material science, engineering, medical science, geophysics and earth science. He was one of the most cited physicists in the world from 1981 to 1997, with more 2,000 citations of 171 papers. To date, he has published more than 425 papers in peer reviewed journals with total citations over 19,800. He is currently the supervisor of seven Ph.D. students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since 1978, Ching has brought in nearly $8 million in external support and has been funded by several agencies including the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Defense.
Ching was honored with the University of Missouri System President’s Award for Sustained Career Excellence in 2017.
The tradition of AAAS Fellows began in 1874. This year’s AAAS Fellows will be formally announced in the AAAS News & Notes section of the journal Science on Nov. 29, 2018.