Yuk L. Yung is presently a Smits Family Professor in planetary science at the California Institute of Technology. He was honored by the AAS citing outstanding contributions to the discipline, most notably in the areas of atmospheric evolution and photochemistry, as well as global climate change, planetary habitability and radiative transfer.
Established in 1984, the prize is awarded annually by the AAS to scientists advancing understanding of the planetary system. Yung is the first East Asian to earn the prestigious recognition.
According to AS, Yung’s success is backed by enormous enthusiasm and inexhaustible tenacity for research, coupled with broad knowledge across a wide array of fields and an innovative approach to solving problems in planetary atmospheres.
“By integrating laboratory data, observations and quantitative modeling, Yung’s research has yielded pioneering insights into the current properties and behavior, as well as historical evolution, of solar-system atmospheres,” an AS official said.
The chemistry models Yung created for planetary atmospheres have been widely applied in interpreting results from space missions, including those undertaken by Cassini, Galileo, Mars Science Laboratory, New Horizons, Pioneer Venus, Venus Express, Vikings and Voyagers.
Yung studied physics at University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University. An academician of Taiwan’s leading research body since 2010, he also holds fellowship at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science and American Geophysical Union.
In addition to the prize, Yung won the Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA in 2004 for significant scientific contribution to achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. (YHC-JSM)
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