Three University of Colorado at Boulder faculty members have been elected fellows of the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science for 2007.

The AAAS fellows are Senior Research Associate John "Jack" Gosling of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Professor Henry Kapteyn of the physics department and JILA, and Professor Tom Ranker of the CU Museum of Natural History and the ecology and evolutionary biology department. They were among 471 AAAS fellows elected by their peers for efforts to advance science or foster applications deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.

Gosling was honored for his distinguished contributions to the field of space plasma physics, particularly for the physics of the solar wind and its interaction with the geomagnetic field. Gosling was the first scientist to provide a comprehensive description of coronal mass ejections, which arise from the sudden release of enormous volumes of plasma previously trapped in the sun's corona by the solar magnetic field into the solar wind.

Kapteyn was cited for his pioneering contributions in the fields of atomic, molecular and optical science, in particular for opening up a new field of "attosecond" science -- a spin-off of intense laser physics -- and nonlinear physics. He and Professor Margaret Murnane of the physics department and JILA have pioneered the development of new techniques to generate laser-like X-ray beams using tabletop-scale laser technology.

The new capability makes possible new ways of observing fast processes in atoms, molecules and solids, and promises to make possible the development of tabletop X-ray microscopes for biological and medical imaging.

Ranker, interim director of the CU Museum and curator of botany, was honored for significant contributions to the fields of phylogeny and evolution of vascular plants, particularly to the biogeography of island flora in the Pacific. His research has focused primarily on the systematics, population genetics, biogeography and evolution of tropical ferns in the Pacific islands, although he has conducted research from Borneo and Costa Rica to New Guinea and Taiwan.

Ranker has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in biological journals and also is past president of the American Fern Society.

The three new AAAS fellows join 44 active or emeritus faculty members from CU-Boulder previously elected as fellows of the science association. Kapteyn also is affiliated with JILA, a research institute jointly operated by CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Founded in 1848, AAAS works to advance science for human well-being through its projects, programs and publications in the areas of science policy, science education and international scientific cooperation. AAAS includes 262 affiliated societies and academies of science serving 10 million individuals and publishes the journal Science.

The new fellows will be honored at the 2008 AAAS annual meeting to be held in February in Boston.