Prestigious National Academy of Sciences Elects Three More Yale University Researchers to Fellowship

A chemist who specializes in soccer-ball shaped carbon molecules known as buckyballs, a mathematician who is noted for his work in data compression and restoration, and a geneticist whose techniques are widely used for analyzing human genes are the most recent Yale inductees into the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.

The three scientists were notified last week of their election as fellows, bringing the total number of Yale scientists who are academy members to 65. The new inductees are Martin Saunders, professor of chemistry; Ronald R. Coifman, professor of mathematics and computer science; and David C. Ward, professor of genetics, and of molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

Coifman has conducted pioneering research on wavelet packets, a mathematical shorthand for compressing and restoring virtually any image or sound. By drawing upon a nearly infinite number of mathematically generated shapes or templates, wavelet packets not only can be used to compress data, but can restore blurred images or poor-quality sounds by detecting and enhancing the underlying coherent structure.

His wavelet packets have been used by the FBI and Scotland Yard to compress massive fingerprint files to a more manageable size for transmission over telephone lines. Other potential applications of the new technology include converting long-playing record collections to high quality compact discs, restoring old photographs, faster target recognition by “smart” weapons, more accurate oil exploration with seismic waves, clearer mammograms and ultrasound images during pregnancy, weather forecasts based on subtle pattern recognition, and rapid transmission of picture-phone images. Yale and Coifman hold a joint patent for the discovery.

Coifman’s other research interests include nonlinear analysis, scattering theory, real and complex analysis and singular integrals. He has taught at Yale since 1980 and chaired the mathematics department from 1986-89. Previously, he taught at Washington University and the University of Chicago. He earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Geneva in Switzerland. He was awarded the Connecticut Medal of Science in 1996 by Gov. John G. Rowland.

Saunders discovered that helium, neon and the other noble gases can be put inside Buckminsterfullerenes (buckyballs) by heating these hollow carbon molecules under pressure – the first reported compounds involving noble gases. He also studies stable carbon and hydrogen ions, called carbocations, in solutions and has made important contributions to the “non-classical ion problem.” An expert in physical-organic chemistry with an interest in applications of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Saunders also introduced the “stochastic search method” for locating all forms of flexible molecules.

Saunders received his doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University and joined the Yale faculty in 1955. He was a Sloan Fellow from 1965 to 1969 and received a Senior U.S. Scientist Award in 1977 and again in 1985 from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He held the Kharasch Chair at the University of Chicago in 1983 and was elected a fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science in 1995.

Ward has developed techniques called FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) that are used widely to analyze human chromosomes as well as to detect infectious, genetic and cancerous diseases. His laboratory is constructing detailed physical and genetic maps of human and rodent chromosomes. Cloned DNA probes, including hundreds of known genes, have been mapped and then ordered with greater precision by using his genetic techniques.

Among his accomplishments is the complete genetic mapping of chromosome 12, which contains genes implicated in a variety of diseases, including diabetes and several forms of cancer. Ward received his Ph.D. degree from Rockefeller University in 1969 and was a Leukemia Society of America Fellow 1969-1971 at Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London. He joined the Yale faculty in 1971.

The National Academy of Sciences, which is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science for the general welfare, was established in 1863 by a congressional act signed by Abraham Lincoln. The academy advises the federal government.