University of Toronto professors elected to the U.K.'s Royal Society

Published: May 7, 2021

Two University of Toronto professors have been elected Fellows of the Royal Society – the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences.

Professor Julie Forman-Kay of the department of biochemistry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Professor Jeremy Quastel of the department of mathematics in the Faculty of Arts & Science are among the 60 scientists named this year as Fellows, Foreign Members or Honorary Fellows.

“The global pandemic has demonstrated the continuing importance of scientific thinking and collaboration across borders,” Sir Adam Smith, president of the society, said in a statement. “Each Fellow and Foreign Member bring their area of scientific expertise to the Royal Society and when combined, this expertise supports the use of science for the benefit of humanity.”

Forman-Kay and Quastel are deeply collaborative leaders who have made profound impact with their research, said Professor Leah Cowen, associate vice-president, research.

“Julie Forman-Kay’s recent studies elucidating the roles of disordered regions in controlling cellular organization and chemical reactions have led to important insights into normal biological regulation and how mutations in these regions lead to cancer and neurological disorders,” Cowen said. “And Jeremy Quastel is making world-leading contributions to probability theory, stochastic processes and partial differential equations.

“The university congratulates them on this important recognition of their accomplishments.”