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Two faculty members from Caltech—Dianne Newman, Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor of Biology and Geobiology and Merkin Institute Professor, and Barry Barish, Ronald and Maxine Linde Professor of Physics, Emeritus—have been elected to the American Philosophical Society (APS).
According to its press release, the APS is “the oldest and most esteemed learned society in North America.” Established by Benjamin Franklin in 1743 “to unite innovative thinkers in the sciences and other fields of study … for the general aim of ‘promoting useful knowledge.’”
This year, the APS has inducted 38 new members into its society, elevating the cumulative count of elected members to 5,854 throughout the society’s history.
Newman was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971 and spent her early years in South America and northern Virginia. She attended West Potomac High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, earning her BA in 1993 from Stanford and her PhD in 1997 from MIT. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, she joined Caltech’s faculty in 2000, becoming a professor in 2006, and served as an HHMI Investigator (2005–2016), Wilson professor at MIT (2007–2010), Gordon M. Binder/Amgen Professor at Caltech in 2016, and Merkin Institute Professor in 2024.
Newman’s research centers on microbial energy preservation and survival under low-oxygen conditions. The diverse contexts inspiring her research range from (ancient) sediments and soils to human chronic infections, yet all involve bacteria found in multicellular aggregates (biofilms). The principal question her investigations explore is how these microorganisms flourish on substrates that pose cellular challenges due to their toxicity or limited bioavailability at the molecular scale. For instance, Newman’s lab unveiled how bacteria can respire using arsenate in place of oxygen, how they engage in photosynthesis utilizing iron rather than water, and how they exploit specific types of secondary metabolites (usually perceived as antibiotics) as molecular snorkels to sustain cellular metabolism in the anoxic nuclei of biofilms. Given that molecular biosignatures archive the earliest records of life on Earth, Newman’s mechanistic inquiries have also enriched our understanding of ancient molecular fossils.
Her lab is notably interdisciplinary. With expertise in areas such as bacterial genetics, biochemistry, electrochemistry, genomics, isotope geochemistry, microscopy, and (bio)physics, Newman’s students and postdocs combine various viewpoints and skills in innovative manners to tackle intricate challenges. Currently, a significant portion of their work concentrates on phenazines, a category of redox-active metabolites produced by diverse biofilm-forming soil bacteria, in addition to the human opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The redox cycling of phenazines in low-oxygen environments maintains biofilm cells in a non-growing state that is tolerant to antibiotics, producing one of the lowest power outputs ever recorded for any life form. Research on this system is uncovering insights that could lead to novel methods for managing biofilms in natural environments and diseases.
Newman has garnered numerous accolades, including a Packard Fellowship, Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research Award, the National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology, and a MacArthur Fellowship. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Academy of Microbiology, and the American Geophysical Union.
Barish was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1936 and spent his formative years in Los Angeles. He attended John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, where a nearby intersection was recently designated Barry Barish Square in his honor. He earned his BA in 1957 and his PhD in 1962, both from UC Berkeley. He began a long-term association with Caltech as a research fellow in 1963 before ascending to assistant professor in 1966, associate professor in 1969, professor in 1972, and Linde Professor in 1991.
Barish devoted his career to developing some of the most ambitious detectors in physics. He initiated the first high-energy neutrino beam experiment at Fermilab and helped lead an international collaboration that searched for magnetic monopoles; if discovered, these would support the grand unified theory aiming to merge electromagnetic, weak, and strong forces. While the experiment, termed the Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory (MACRO), did not identify magnetic monopoles, it established the most stringent limits on their existence. Barish subsequently directed the design of one of the two detectors intended for the Superconducting Super Collider, a substantial particle accelerator planned for construction in Texas before its cancellation in 1993.
In 1994, he joined the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO), leveraging his expertise in mega-projects to steer the group through the project’s significant technical and logistical challenges. He guided LIGO through its final design phases and secured funding from the National Science Foundation. Barish oversaw the construction of two LIGO facilities from 1994 to 1999 and then the installation and commissioning of the initial LIGO interferometers from 1999 to 2005. He subsequently led the development and approval of the next stage of LIGO, known as Advanced LIGO, which was implemented and constructed between 2010 and 2014, ultimately leading to the historic detection of gravitational waves in 2015. Notably, Barish expanded LIGO from a small group in the 1990s to its current form, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC): a coalition of approximately 1,200 scientists and engineers from 100 institutions across 18 nations.
Barish has received many accolades, including the National Medal of Science in 2023, the Enrico Fermi Prize in 2016, and the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017, awarded alongside LIGO co-founders Kip Thorne (BS ’62), Caltech’s Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus, and Rai Weiss, professor of physics, emeritus at MIT.
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